Aussie citizen stuck in Bangladesh seeks donations to survive

Andrew John Wright, an Australian citizen and school teacher has been stuck in Bangladesh for over a year due to visa complications and financial hardship.

Andrew reportedly arrived in Bangladesh to teach at the  Canadian Trillium School (CTS) at the end of 2019 and was issued an on-arrival visa upon landing, according to his statement at the popular crowdfunding website Grab Funding. 

He said the CTS authority offered him less remuneration and did not provide any legal employment visa and work permit as they promised.

Later, Andrew collected a work permit till September 2020 from Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) and submitted all the documents for a permanent visa.

However, after his visa expired, the CTS authority managed to get him only a three-month-long tourist visa despite him having a legal work permit.

His visa was automatically extended once again as schools were closed down in March 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Later, he declined to leave the country as long his work visa is valid upon being asked by the school authority in June.

After waiting for months, when he finally took the responsibility himself to manage to extend his visa on, BIDA authority informed that they need the "Request letter from the employer" - which had not been sent by the CTS authority on multiple requests.

In October, CTS authorities accepted their negligence over Andrew's employment issue to BIDA but they claimed they did not have any cash to pay him off.

Now, he is stuck in the middle with no payment, no financial support to pursue legal action or a legal permit to stay in this country. So unable to cope with this dire situation, Andrew is looking for help from people.

As of now, he has raised Tk 9,600 since opening his page on January 26, 2021. But his target is to collect Tk 300,000 to proceed with his upcoming future activities.