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MOMEN-EXPATRIATE-RETURN-LEAD
Nearly 29,000 expat workers likely to return in weeks
DHAKA, May 6, 2020 (BSS) – Foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen today said
Dhaka is expecting to receive nearly 29,000 Bangladeshi nationals, mostly
expatriate workers of Middle East (ME) countries in the next couple of weeks.
“As per our knowledge goes.. 28,849 expatiates are likely to return here
in the next couple of weeks,” he told media in video message after holding
the fifth inter-ministerial meeting at foreign ministry here today to discuss
on repatriation of Bangladeshi nationals from different countries due to
COVID- 19.
The foreign minister said Bangladesh would bring back all its nationals
who are opted to return. “We discussed (today) how we can bring them back. We
can do it,” he said.
Momen also said so far 3,695 expatriates Bangladeshis returned home in
last three weeks from the ME countries. “Among the returnees, large numbers
were in the prisons of different ME countries but got general amnesty due to
Coronavirus pandemic,” he said.
Besides the expatriate Bangladeshi deported workers, he said, the
government had facilitated numbers of chartered flights to bring back so far
nearly 2853 stranded Bangladeshi citizens from different countries.
Momen said more flights are being arranged to bring back rest of the
stranded Bangladeshis from different countries India, the UK and the USA.
Describing Bangladeshi expatriate workers’ situation in different ME
countries amid outbreak of coronavirus, the foreign minister said they are
expected to return home from the United Arab Emirates, the Maldives, Saudi
Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Oman and Kuwait.
About Kuwait, Momen said the government of that oil-rich nation granted
general amnesty to some 4500 undocumented Bangladeshi nationals and kept them
in detention camps there to send them back here.
Dhaka asked the Bangladesh Mission in Kuwait to ensure adequate food
supply to Bangladeshi citizens after receiving complaints that they are not
given adequate food at the camps.
“We will bring them back whenever the Kuwait government wants. We have no
reason not to receive them (our nationals),” he said.
Momen said many Bangladeshi expatriate workers are in the UAE while that
Arab country asking every migrant worker origin countries, including India
and Pakistan, to bring their nationals back in this crisis period.
He said like Bangladesh India is also planning to bring back around 2
lakhs of its nationals from the UAE.
Momen said Saudi Arabia is yet to provide the full list of deporting
Bangladeshi workers but as per the current information 4262 Bangladeshi
citizens are likely to return from there, the country that hosts 21 lakh
Bangladeshi expatriate workers.
The foreign minister said nearly 1000 Bangladeshi nationals are waiting to
return from Oman while the government is trying to involve the IOM to bring
back Bangladeshi citizens from Lebanon at free of cost.
He said the number of Bangladeshi nationals lost jobs in Iraq and Jorden
while the government is working on how to bring them back.
Dr Momen said the Maldivian President informed Dhaka that they will send
back 1500 Bangladeshi nationals of which 400 are scheduled to arrive here
tomorrow.
The foreign minister said expatriates Bangladeshis are assets of the
country and the government will make sure that they do not face any problems.
However, he urged the expatriate Bangladeshi workers not to return home
unless they are forced to do so amid the unprecedented situation prevailing
in different countries due to the pandemic.
Momen hoped that good time would come for expatriate Bangladeshi workers
after the ongoing global crisis passes.
The foreign minister said Dhaka has already raised the issue of migrant
workers right and retention of their job at the platform of OIC and NAM.
“I told them these migrant workers are development partners for both host
and origin countries. Either documented or undocumented, that doesn’t matter.
No one should die of starvation. Arrange food for them,” he said.
Momen said he requested all Islamic countries not to cut jobs of migrant
workers at least for next six months as families of those workers here are
dependent on them.
“I proposed them (Islamic countries) to form a COVID-19 recovery fund
where we can contribute to retain migrants workers jobs at least for six
months,” he said.
On Monday, while presenting Bangladesh statement in an Online Non-Aligned
Movement (NAM) Contact Group Summit, Momen called for taking a global
strategy to protect interests of migrant workers as they have been hard-hit
due to COVID-19 pandemic that has pushed global economy into tailspin.
Terming migrant workers as “frontline contributors” to the economies, Dr.
Momen stressed the need for formulating a strategy for responsibility sharing
both in home and host countries.
Earlier on April 21, at foreign minister level meeting of OIC executive
committee, the foreign minister urged the Islamic countries to adopt a
holistic approach for protecting migrant workers residing in OIC member
states.
“The OIC must adopt a holistic and inclusive approach in designing tools
to address the crisis (job retention of migrant workers),” he said.
According to the government decision, the returnee expatriate workers
received Taka 5,000 on arrival at the airport while the Expatriate Welfare
Ministry created a fund to give them Taka 500,000 to 700,000 loan so that the
returnees can start their own business here.
More than 257,000 people have so far been killed and 3.67 million infected
worldwide by the COVID-19, which has left half of humanity under some form of
lockdown and pushed the global economy towards its worst downturn since the
Great Depression.
BSS/ASG/TA/KU/2103 HRS