Govt sits Wednesday to discuss migrant workers’ issue amid lockdown

The government is going to hold a high-level inter-ministerial meeting on Wednesday to discuss the issues of migrant workers amid international flight suspension during the fresh weeklong lockdown, said officials concerned.

“This high level inter-ministerial meeting is scheduled to be held at 11am on Wednesday with the foreign secretary in the chair,” Md Tohidul Islam, deputy principal information officer at MoFA, told the Business Insider Bangladesh.

He said that top officials from expatriates welfare and overseas employment and civil aviation ministries and other departments concerned would take part in the meeting.

Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers are set to face problem as the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh suspended operation of international flights, scheduled to operate to and from Dhaka from April 14 to contain the surging Covid-19 infection.

During the strict lockdown all over the country, the passengers will find it very hard to reach Dhaka airport as transport services will remain suspended, the CAAB officials said.

Recruiting agencies said that more than 20,000 migrant workers who are scheduled to fly in a week would get stuck as following the government’s decision.

About 200,000 migrant workers who have already received their job visas will also face problems due to the suspension of the flights, they said.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) and the Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB) on Tuesday urged the government to keep international flight operations out of purview of the lockdown.

The two associations made the plea during their separate press conferences held at the capital’s Dhaka Reporters Unity.

Both the organisations said that the weeklong ban on the international flights will result in expiry of many workers’ visas.