Most of them migrant workers from Middle East; experts raise concerns of Covid-19 spread

Rashidul Hasan

All 1,203 Bangladeshis who returned to the country in 24 hours till yesterday -- most of whom migrant workers who had remained in detention camps or prisons of Middle Eastern countries -- were allowed to stay in home quarantine, causing concerns over spread of Covid-19.

Public Health experts said the returnee Bangladeshi expatriate workers must stay in institutional quarantine instead of home quarantine, as most of them don’t have facilities at their homes to ensure that the guidelines are being followed.

Sirazum Munera, a doctor at the health desk at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA), said of the 1,203 Bangladeshi returnees, around 1,000 expatriate workers who were stuck either in deportation camps or jail returned from United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Oman.

Of them, 463 returned from UAE by two separate flights, 181 returned from Oman by a charter flight and 289 returned from Kuwait by a special flight, said Munera.

A special flight of US-Bangla Airlines brought back 195 Bangladeshi nationals stranded in Chennai on May 30.

of them had gone to India for treatment purpose, sources at the airport said.