114 stranded Bangladeshis return from London

The government today brought back 114 stranded Bangladeshi nationals from London by a special chartered flight of Biman Bangladesh airlines amid flight suspension due to COVID-19 pandemic.

"Our special flight landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) from London at 9:40 am today carrying 114 Bangladesh nationals," Biman's Deputy General Manager (PR) Tahera Khondokar told media here.

Meanwhile, a press release issued by Bangladesh High Commission in London said the Bangladesh government special chartered flight, BG 4041, departed London at 7:45 pm London local time on Sunday for Dhaka carrying Bangladeshis who were stranded in the United Kingdom since suspension of flights between Dhaka and London.

Most of the returning passengers are students from Bangladesh, it added.

Bangladesh High Commissioner to the UK Saida Muna Tasneem saw off the returning passengers at the Heathrow Airport.

"We are humbly gratified that we could reunite the Bangladeshi citizens, in particular students, stranded in the UK with their families in Bangladesh before the Eid-ul-Fitr festival," Bangladesh envoy said on the occasion.

Earlier at the request of Bangladesh High Commission in London, the government arranged the flight, being operated by the national carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines and chartered by Bangladesh Air Force Welfare Trust (BAFWT).

London High Commission has already provided all the passengers with a health certificate based on their health assessment so that they would be directed to home quarantine only.

As per the Bangladesh government decision, all the returnee Bangladeshis would have to be sent to a 14-day institutional quarantine under the management of the Armed Forces Division (AFD) if they failed to show medical certificate at the airport on their arrival here.

Apart from UK, Bangladesh so far repatriated stranded Bangladeshis from India, Australia, Thailand, Singapore and Myanmar while more chartered flights have also been planned to bring back Bangladesh nationals from the USA and Malaysia soon.

On May 5, Bangladesh extended the ongoing ban on flight operation for the fifth consecutive time till May 16 to and from all European countries and the nations including India that restricted the entry of Bangladeshis to their territories as well as on all domestic routes over the coronavirus scare.
Other countries, including the USA, the UK, Canada, Turkey, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Bhutan, Myanmar and different European countries so far operated several special chartered flights amid the flight suspension to repatriate their citizens from here.