UAE denies entry to 68 Bangladeshi migrants

Some 68 Bangladeshi expatriates were sent back home from Abu Dhabi International Airport yesterday after they allegedly failed to meet necessary conditions for their immigration clearance.  

Officials at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka said the expatriates flew back in a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight in the morning.

Of the 68 passengers, six flew from Bangladesh the previous night and the rest travelled to Abu Dhabi on Friday, he added.

An official of Prabashi Kalyan Desk at the airport said he talked to several passengers after their return and they mentioned different reasons for not getting their immigration clearance.

One returnee said he was refused because he travelled to the UAE without his required re-entry permit, said the official.

Another passenger said he wanted to go to Dubai after entering the UAE through the Abu Dhabi airport. But the authorities refused him immigration clearance, he added.

The official said the expatriates were returning to the UAE after their vacation ended.

Sheikh Bahar, a migrant worker from Feni, told The Daily Star that he travelled to Abu Dhabi airport in a Biman flight on Friday. He was refused immigration clearance because he did not have the online re-entry permit that he was supposed to carry with him from Bangladesh.

Bahar, who had been in the UAE for the last 10 years, said he filled out the online form on August 6, but did not get the reply confirming his re-entry permit in time.

On the other hand, he was in a hurry to enter the country as he was supposed to join his work after his vacation ended on August 14, he said, adding that he came to Bangladesh in March this year and was stranded amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Bahar also said as per the requirement, he underwent Covid-19 tests at a government-approved lab in Bangladesh and also at the Abu Dhabi airport.

He urged the authorities concerned to take effective steps to end his plight.

Contacted, Tahera Khandker, deputy general manager (public relations) of Biman, confirmed that some expatriates returned home from the Gulf state yesterday.

The flight carried more than 200 passengers, the Biman official told this newspaper over the phone.

As per a Biman notice issued on July 29, passengers who will travel to Dubai and Abu Dhabi from Bangladesh have to obtain Covid-19 negative certificates from the approved labs valid for 72 hours before their departure.

Biman, the national flag carrier, resumed its scheduled commercial flight operations to Abu Dhabi and Dubai last month after commercial flights on the routes were suspended in March amid the pandemic.

The UAE is home to several lakh Bangladeshi migrant workers. Many of them came home on vacation and later remained stranded due to flight suspensions amid the pandemic.

After an inter-ministerial meeting held virtually yesterday, Expatriates' Welfare Minister Imran Ahmad said measures would be taken for sending the expatriate Bangladeshis who were sent back from the Abu Dhabi airport after the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh submits a report, said a ministry press release.

The Caab has been asked to submit a report to the civil aviation and tourism ministry within the next five working days after probing the return of the expatriate workers in Biman and Air Arabia flights, he said.

The expatriates will be sent again in flights of the related airlines or under government arrangement, he added.