322 Bangladeshis return home from Australia, India

A total of 322 Bangladeshi citizens stranded in India and Australia returned home yesterday by two separate special flights of US-Bangla Airlines and a Sri Lanka Airlines flight.

Of them, 165 returned from India and 157 returned from Australia. They were stranded in the two countries for over one-and-half-a months after the Covid-19 lockdowns hit.

The US-Bangla Airlines flight carrying the 165 Bangladeshis from Chennai landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) at around 2:45pm. The special Sri Lankan Airlines flight from Australia landed around 1am, after a stop at Colombo, said an official of Aviation Security, HSIA.

Meanwhile, 168 more Indian nationals and one Bhutanese national left Dhaka for their respective countries yesterday, AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan, director, HSIA, said.

A special flight of Air India carrying the Indian citizens left the airport around 1:15pm, while a special flight of Druk Air left the terminals around 9:30am, said Touhid.

With yesterday's returnees, around 2,327 Bangladeshi nationals stuck in neighbouring country due to suspension of scheduled passenger flights to contain the Covid-19 pandemic have returned, sources at HSIA said.

Most of the Bangladeshis stranded in India went there for medical purposes.

In two phases, around 2,000 Bangladeshi citizens stranded in India have so far returned to the country by 12 special flights of Biman and US-Bangla Airlines, sources at HSIA said.

Of the 12, Biman operated 4 and US-Bangla operated 8 special flights.

In the next phase, Biman and US-Bangla Airlines are scheduled to operate 10 special flights from India, the Bangladesh High Commission in India said in a press release on May 5, splitting the duty by five flights each.

Schedules for the Biman flights are: from Kolkata on May 10, from Mumbai on May 12, from Bengaluru on May 13 and 15, and from Delhi on May 14. All flights are scheduled to take off at 2:30pm Indian time.

After the two flights that landed yesterday, US-Bangla are scheduled to operate three more special flights, all from Chennai, on May 10, 13 and 14.