Saudi restrictions put Biman in peril
The Saudi authorities this year stopped issuing Umrah visas to Bangladeshis on the allegation of smuggling of migrants into the country.
The decision to stop issuing the visa is taking a heavy toll on the income of Biman Bangladesh Airlines.
The national flag carrier has already reduced its weekly seven flights on Dhaka-Jeddah-Dhaka route to five from the last week of April following the drop in the number of passengers.
The decrease in the number of passengers on the route is linked to the “ban” on Umrah visa, said a top Biman official, wishing anonymity.
Even though Biman has been operating weekly five flights on the route, each of the flight has been carrying around 100 passengers less than what it used to carry before the “visa ban”, the official added.
“Before the ban, the load factor of each of the 419-seater Boeing 777-300ER aircraft flight was 70 percent,” he told The Daily Star.
Last year, around 51,321 Bangladeshi nationals performed Umrah and most of them travelled by Biman.Saudi Arabia stopped issuing Umrah visas for the Bangladeshis on March 22 after allegations of smuggling of over 11,400 migrants in the guise of Umrah pilgrims was discovered.
Some 53 private hajj agencies that allegedly smuggled people to the country using the Umrah visa were identified at that time.
“Saudi Arabia has so far informed us of 4,000 people who did not return from the Arab country after visiting there on Umrah visas,” Chowdhury M Babul Hasan, religious affairs secretary told The Daily Star yesterday.
He said the ministry had started a probe into the allegations and as part of this, it issued show cause notices to the 53 agencies on June 11 and June 14, asking them to come up with replies. The agencies are mainly based in Dhaka, Sylhet and Chittagong.
“If our investigation finds the allegations to be true, we'll take stern action against the agencies,” he added.
The actions include cancellation of their licences and monetary penalty, he added.
The Bangladesh Hajj Mission in Jeddah had already requested the religious affairs ministry to take back the illegal migrants as the Saudi authorities said they would not issue Umrah visa until the Bangladeshis were taken back, ministry sources said.
Asked, Mohammad Ibrahim Bahar, president of Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (Haab), said, “Some of those agencies are our members. We will investigate whether they are involved in human trafficking. If anyone is found involved, we will bring them to book.”
Umrah visas, which are issued only for 14 to 28 days, do not require any police verification and ministry certification. Unscrupulous local and Saudi hajj agencies can take advantage of this, said people involved in the business.
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