The government hopes to repatriate almost 19,000 Bangladeshis who remain stranded in camps in Tunisia, Egypt and other bordering countries of Libya within the next week.
Foreign secretary M. Mijarul Quayes said this during a press briefing Thursday. So far the total number of stranded Bangladeshis repatriated is 12,532.
However the foreign secretary said the government still has no evacuation plan in place. "The government, with the help of international organizations, is just repatriating those Bangladeshis who have moved out of Libya,” he told reporters.
He said that some Bangladeshi nurses working in an Italian military hospital in Libya are not willing to return home.
A press statement issued by the government said, “the situation in Libya is grave and we are concerned.” The government has decided to engage the national flag carrier, Biman, to repatriate Bangladeshis from Egypt.
Biman will operate its first repatriation flight on March 13 and it will operate five flights a week," said civil aviation and tourism secretary Shafique Alam Mehdi during the press conference.
Biman will use Airbus and DC-10 aircraft for repatriation," he said, before adding, "The carrier can carry a maximum of 1200 to 1300 Bangladeshis a week." He appeared optimisticabout being granted landing permission in Alexandria, Egypt.
The foreign secretary said that three dead Bangladeshi nationals were flown back to Dhaka from Greece early today.
The deceased are Mohon Kamal of Barisal, Mohammad Shafiqul Azam of Savar, and Farid Khalifa of Gopalganj. They died as they jumped off a ship when it arrived near the Greece’s shores from Libya on March 6.
“About 3,000 Bangladeshis who were stranded in Greece were relocated to Bangladesh,” he said adding, “Only 11 remain missing, as they jumped off the ship and are yet to be traced.”
The body of Jahangir Afrad, who died at the Egyptian border, will be flown back to Bangladesh by the first available chartered flight, he said.
“There remain 3,027 Bangladeshis stranded at the border point of Al Salloum in Egypt,” he said.About 15,000 Bangladeshis remain stranded in Tunisia and five flights are scheduled to carry 1,447 from Djerba to Dhaka on Thursday, he said. Hanil, a Korean company, will repatriate 154 workers in its first arranged flight from Tunis Airport.
Referring to assistance from different organizations He said the government requested the Italian government to help relocate Bangladeshis and it responded by offering two flights, which will bring back 564 Bangladeshis. UK-based DFID also repatriated over 1900 Bangladeshis in 10 flights on Thursday.
News Source: The Independent