24 more stranded migrants return today

Twenty-four more Bangladeshis, who had been stranded in the Mediterranean Sea for three weeks off the Tunisian coast, are returning home today.

“They will be returning home in a Qatar Airways flight. Scheduled arrival time is 5:15pm,” a foreign ministry official told The Daily Star this afternoon.

With the third batch returning home from Tunisia, the total number of those returning would be 56 out of 64 Bangladeshis stranded in sea. Other eight are staying at a shelter of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Bangladesh government, in cooperation with the International Organization for Migration, are repatriating them.

Seventy-five migrants, including the 64 Bangladeshis, were brought to the Tunisian shore from 25km off the coast on June 18, after Bangladesh Ambassador to Libya Sheikh Sekander Ali convinced them to come ashore.

Earlier, the Bangladeshis while stranded at the sea refused to return home or even to Tunisia, but wanted to go to Europe.

Tunisia also initially did not want to allow the migrants to their shore, saying that their shelters were overcrowded. European countries too refused to accept them.

Since the civil war began in Libya after the fall of the country’s leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, the North African country has become a major route of human trafficking or smuggling to Europe.