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998 fly back home from Kuwait

RAFIQ HASAN
Nine hundred and ninety-eight Bangladeshis came back home from Kuwait in last two days, according to a control room at Zia International Airport.
Among them were 775 defence personnel who were stationed in Kuwait as part of the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observers Mission.
The remaining 223 are civilians. Thirty of them returned on Wednesday after the Korean Hyundai plant on the Kuwait-Iraq border closed temporarily because of the Iraq crisis, said sources in the Ministry of Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment.
All foreign workers, including the 30 Bangladeshis, have been given their overdue salaries and free tickets home.
Hyundai has assured its workers
that the plant would reopen once the situation normalises.
The Haji camp near the airport will be used for emergency shelter of war victims from the Middle East, but no returnees took facilities of the camp until yesterday, sources said.
"The flow of returnees is normal but the number will increase after arrival of other flights," said a control room official.
The government bears the cost of sending Bangladeshi expatriates returning from the Middle East to their home destinations.
The control room will help the returnees. Special coupons will be given to each returnee for free travel by train, bus and steamer. The government has already printed 10,000 such coupons. The returnees will need to fill in a registration form to get the service. Meanwhile, the National Road Transport Association of Bangladesh (NRTAB) and the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) have taken measures to take the returnees home safe.
Buses -- each having five reserved seats for them -- will transport them home from Dhaka free, says a press release of the NRTAB.
The BIWTC has also taken steps to make their travels hassle-free. The passengers may call the control room at 9558000.
"The government is fully prepared to tackle any emergency situation," said State Minister for Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Mohammad Quamrul Islam.
The immigration and customs authorities have been instructed to speedily clear the returnees and help them stay at the camp, he said.
The government is still not sure how many workers will come back. "The number of returnees will not be large if the war remains confined to Iraq," said the state minister.
In the worst scenario, some 200,000 Bangladeshis may be evacuated from the Middle East and the International Organisation for Migrants (IOM) has agreed to assist.
A high-powered government delegation led by LGRD Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan visited the airport and the camp on Wednesday to review preparation for handling any emergency.
"The control room will remain open round the clock and provide assistance to returnees," said Dalil Uddin Mondal, secretary in charge of the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment.
Mondal said he had been in touch with all the Bangladesh embassies in the Middle East and there was no report of Bangladeshi workers assembling in any country bordering Iraq.
Embassy officials in Saudi Arabia visited the bordering areas and found no signs of panic or possibility of emergency evacuation by Bangladeshi workers.
The embassy has formed a three-member committee to handle any emergency.