A total of 946 Bangladeshi citizens, most of whom are migrant workers, returned to the country by four special flights from Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, and Russia in the 24 hours since Thursday morning.

All of them were placed in home quarantine for 14 days.

Public health experts warned that allowing these workers to stay in home quarantine might give rise to a further spread of coronavirus as most of them do not have the facilities at their home to follow the quarantine guidelines.

Of the returnees, 743 Bangladeshi expatriate workers, who had been either jail or detention camps of Kuwait, the UAE and Oman, returned as part of the deportation of 29,000 Bangladeshi workers who are supposed to be sent back from different Middle Eastern countries during the pandemic, sources at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) said.

They were brought by three separate chartered flights, Md Mahbubur Rahman, a doctor at the health desk of HSIA, told The Daily Star yesterday.