16 addl flights of Biman to bring back illegal Bangladeshi workers from KL

Biman will operate 16 additional flights on Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur route to bring back several thousand Bangladeshi migrant workers by December 31, the deadline of “Back-for-Good” amnesty programme. 

The national airliner took the initiative as per the instructions from the civil aviation and tourism ministry, said a press release.  

On December 2, the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare requested the civil aviation ministry to operate additional flights to bring back home the undocumented Bangladeshi workers from Malaysia under the amnesty programme of Malaysia government— “Back for Good”.

The amnesty for the workers will end on December 31. 

The illegal migrants who have been given amnesty under the programme by the Malaysian government are now facing tremendous problems there due to scarcity of air tickets and high fare.

The additional flights of Biman will be operated between December 12 and 31 alongside the regular flights, ministry sources said.

Under the arrangement, Biman is supposed to deploy both Boeing 777 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner to carry the migrant workers from Malaysia.

At present, weekly 10 flights are operated on the Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur route.       

Around 29,000 undocumented migrant workers have returned from Malaysia so far.

Another several thousand remained stranded in Kuala Lumpur due to acute scarcity of air ticket. The one-way air fare from Kuala Lumpur has reached as high as Tk 50,000-70,000 from the regular fare of Tk 10,000-15,000.