The Saudi authorities have assured Bangladeshi officials to provide a ship on Saturday to transfer stranded Bangladeshi nationals from the Port of Sudan to Jeddah.
"The Saudi Authorities said they will provide a ship today (Saturday). If the ship arrives, we'll try to transfer all the stranded Bangladeshis if possible," a senior official at the foreign ministry told the FE on Saturday.
However, in the last three days, the authorities failed to arrange ships.
The ministry mentioned that the delay was caused by non-cooperation from a group of Bangladeshi nationals, while some stranded Bangladeshis cited mismanagement by the officials of the Bangladesh mission as the main reason.
The Bangladeshis were evacuated from the battle-torn Khartoum on Tuesday last and were supposed to be shifted to Jeddah from the Port of Sudan by ship on the following day.
However, the officials of the Bangladesh mission failed to do so and informed the foreign ministry that all the Bangladeshis would have to be shifted together as suggested by the Saudi authorities.
"Initially, the mission officials planned to prioritise shifting passport holders in the first phase. However, since they were instructed to shift all the Bangladeshis together, they had to prepare travel permits for those who did not have legal documents," an official at the foreign ministry said, explaining why none was shifted to Jeddah on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the Bangladeshis were told that 100-120 Bangladeshis would be shifted, and women and their families would be given priority.
According to some Bangladeshis, apart from the women and their families, the authorities tried to include some other people in the first batch causing resentment among the stranded Bangladeshis.
"Consequently, many of us got agitated and there were altercations in the camp among us over the issue and, at one stage, police were called to control the situation," a stranded Bangladeshi, preferring not to be named, told the FE over telephone.
"Till now we do not know when they can arrange a ship for us," he said.
Another Bangladeshi told the FE that they were suffering from non-availability of pure drinking water and food. Many of them alleged that they were not taken care of by the officials of the mission properly.
Earlier on Thursday, a senior official at the foreign ministry had stated that there was a possibility that the Bangladeshis would be shifted to Jeddah by Friday.
mirmostafiz@yahoo.com
