Govt to operate special flights for outgoing migrant workers

The government has decided to operate special flights for outgoing migrant workers to ensure their smooth departure amid the weeklong lockdown that began on Wednesday.

The special flights will be soon introduced for sending the migrants to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Qatar and Singapore.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) will ensure the special flights by tomorrow (Thursday) after preparing detailed workplans about the issues, said officials concerned.

The decisions were made on Wednesday at a high-level inter-ministerial meeting chaired by foreign (senior) secretary Masud Bin Momen.

Secretaries of expatriates welfare and overseas employment and civil aviation ministries, senior officials from prime minister’s office, chairman of CAAB and managing director of Bangladesh Biman, among other concerned officials, attended the meeting.

The meeting also decided that it would be responsibility of the recruiting agencies to bring outgoing migrant workers at the airport following health guidelines and Covid-19 negative certificates.

Bangladeshi expatriates will be allowed to return home only on emergency but they will have to take clearance certificates from Bangladesh missions abroad.

On return they will have to abide by the quarantine rules and will also need to bring Covid-19 negative certificates.

When asked for comment, migration expert and BRAC migration head Shariful Hassan told the Business Insider Bangladesh that it was a positive decision taken by the government to operate special flights amid lockdown for the sake of the migrant workers.

“I think that such a positive decision will leave a positive impact for the country,” he said, adding that the stakeholders concerned should extend cooperation to take the sector ahead.

According to recruiting agencies, there are more than 20,000 migrant workers who are scheduled to fly in a week.