Abu Dhabi sends back 68 expats for failing immigration clearance

Sixty-eight Bangladeshi expatriates were sent back from Abu Dhabi International Airport after they allegedly failed to meet necessary conditions for immigration clearance.

Officials at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka said they returned on a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight this morning.

The 68 passengers did not meet necessary conditions for clearing Abu Dhabi's immigration, said an official of HSIA.

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

Following an inter-ministerial meeting held virtually today, Expatriates' Welfare Minister Imran Ahmad said in a press release, measures will be taken for sending the expatriate Bangladeshis who were directed back from Abu Dhabi airport after Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh file a report in this regard.

CAAB has been asked to submit a report to the civil aviation and tourism ministry within the next five working days after a probe on the return of expatriate workers on Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Air Arabia flights, the minister said.

The expatriates will be sent back on flights of the related airlines or under government arrangement.

An official at Prabashi Kalyan Desk at the airport said he had spoken to several passengers on their return and they provided different reasons for the refusal of immigration at Abu Dhabi.

One person said he was refused entry because he travelled without the required re-entry permit, said the Prabashi Kalyan Desk official.

The official said the expatriates were returning to Abu Dhabi, the capital of UAE, after the end of their vacation.

Sheikh Bahar, a migrant worker from Feni, told The Daily Star he had travelled on a Biman flight to Abu Dhabi airport on Friday and was later refused immigration because he did not have the online re-entry permit which he was supposed to carry from Bangladesh.

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

But he was in a hurry to get to UAE as he was supposed to join work on August 14, he said. He came to Bangladesh in March this year and remained stuck here due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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

He urged the authorities concerned to take effective steps in this regard.

It is still not whether the returnees will now be put under any quarantine measures following their air travel.

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

But she refused to comment whether they were sent back, saying she did not receive any formal message to this end as of this evening.

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

Biman, the national flag carrier, resumed its scheduled commercial flight operations to Abu Dhabi and Dubai last month after suspension of commercial flights on the routes since March.

UAE is home to several lakh Bangladeshi migrant workers. Many of them came home on vacation and later remained stuck due to flight suspensions.