Abrupt cancellations of special flights put migrant workers in hurdle

The abrupt cancellations of some special flights on the first day of their operations on Saturday put the country’s several hundred outgoing migrant workers in acute difficulties at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka amid ongoing lockdown.

The aggrieved air passengers staged demonstration at the airport and also in some locations of the city including Karwan Bazar and Motijheel, victims and officials concerned said.

Migration experts and migrant rights activists described the situation as the gross negligence of the government’s agencies concerned for mounting the troubles for the outgoing migrant workers.

At least four special flights of national flag carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines which were supposed to fly for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were cancelled on Saturday as Biman did not get the landing permission from the authorities concerned of the respective countries.

More flights are on the way to be cancelled if they failed to get landing operations on time, officials at airport said.

“It is very sad to hear that our migrant workers are facing severe problems at the airport due to cancellation of flights though they have all arrived there to fly following health guidelines and adopting Covid-19 test’s negative certificates,” migration expert and WARBE Development Foundation chairman Syed Saiful Haque told the Business Insider Bangladesh.

He observed that migrant workers were forced to face problems due to “gross negligence of the agencies concerned of the government.”

Hailed from Sylhet, Jobayer Ahmed, a Saudi-bound migrant worker, said he has been waiting for a Biman flight since Friday afternoon.

“With Covid negative certificate I had reached the airport more than six hours prior to my flight scheduled on 2:50am on Saturday,” he told the Business Insider Bangladesh over mobile phone.

However, Jobayer also said that Biman officials informed his travel might be held on Saturday evening.

In reply to a query, BRAC migration programme head Shariful Hasan said the lack of coordination among the government offices caused the sufferings to the outgoing migrant workers.

He said that migrant workers should have been informed about the government decisions many hours prior to their arrivals.

The government on April 15 decided to operate special flights to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Oman and Singapore from Saturday so that several thousand migrant workers who remained stuck in the country due to weeklong ban on international flights, can return to their workplaces.

The government on April 11 suspended operation of all international passenger flights to and from Bangladesh for a week from April 14 to contain spread of Covid-19.

When contacted, parliamentarians’ caucus on migration and development Barrister Shameem Haider Patwary told the Business Insider Bangladesh that the migrant workers should be compensated with their loss of earnings and also for the additional cost they incur due to delay or cancellation of their flights.

He also said that the responsible people of the government offices concerned should be punished for the mess.

Replying to a question Barrister Shameem Haider Patwary said that Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment should take immediate steps to find out “ground facts” of the incidence and process to compensate the victim migrant workers.