328 more US citizens leave Dhaka by chartered flight

The United States on Monday evacuated 328 more of its citizens who were stranded in Bangladesh due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A special chartered flight of Qatar Airways left Dhaka for Dulles International Airport in the US state of Virginia in the evening carrying the US nationals.
Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport sources confirmed this to The Business Standard.

With this 328, the number of US citizens leaving Bangladesh by three chartered flights after the coronavirus outbreak has reached 919. As many as 269 stranded Americans were evacuated from Bangladesh on March 30, and another 322 on April 5.

The US embassy in Dhaka earlier said the US government was not forcing any of its citizens to return to their country. This is a personal choice based on what the US nationals are comfortable with, it said.

The embassy said this kind of arrangement was not only taking place in Bangladesh as the US Department of State had thus far arranged special flights in 28 countries to take back nearly 10,000 US citizens.

In late March, the Bangladesh government briefed foreign envoys that it would allow foreign nationals living here to leave the country by chartered flights as commercial flights were suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Following the announcement, the Japanese government evacuated 327 of its nationals from Dhaka on April 2 through a chartered flight of Bangladesh Biman.

On March 26, 354 Malaysian and Bhutanese citizens left Dhaka by three separate flights. Of them, two Drukair flights carried 124 Bhutanese nationals and 230 Malaysians went by a Malaysia Airlines flight.

A total of 123 citizens of European Union (EU) countries left Dhaka for Frankfurt, Germany on April 10 by a special chartered flight of German Condor Airlines.

The British High Commission in Dhaka is also arranging special flights to evacuate its nationals who are in short visits to Bangladesh.