At the airport, with help from Aviation Security and the Expatriates’ Welfare Desk, Brac’s Migration Programme provided the returnees with emergency support, counselling and financial assistance to travel to their homes. Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also present.
Bangladeshi migrants in Libya waiting to return home on a chartered flight of Buraq Air from Benghazi Airport. File photo
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Bangladeshi migrants in Libya waiting to return home on a chartered flight of Buraq Air from Benghazi Airport. File photo
Another 44 Bangladeshis who travelled to Europe without documents or through irregular channels have been sent back to Bangladesh.
According to immigration police and airport sources, they arrived at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 9:15am today (11 November) on a special chartered flight.
Forty were returned from Greece and four from Cyprus.
At the airport, with help from Aviation Security and the Expatriates’ Welfare Desk, Brac’s Migration Programme provided the returnees with emergency support, counselling and financial assistance to travel to their homes. Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also present.
Shariful Hasan, associate director (Migration Programme and Youth Platform) at Brac, said 44 Bangladeshis returned from Europe this morning, including one woman.
All of them received food and financial support at the airport under the Pratyasha-2 project, jointly funded by the European Union (EU) and Brac, he stated, adding that they will receive economic assistance after counselling and training.
He continued, “Bangladeshis have long topped the list of those entering Italy by crossing the Mediterranean from Libya. According to this year’s data, Bangladeshis are also first among those entering Greece by crossing the Mediterranean from Libya. Deaths are frequent among those trying to reach Europe by sea.
“Europe is becoming stricter on irregular migration by the day. Under the new migration policy, those entering Europe irregularly are being quickly sent back, and their asylum applications are being rejected.
“In other words, even after spending Tk30–40 lakh, the final result is zero. Yet people think that getting to Europe by any means will solve all their problems. This misconception must be broken.”
Shariful said the latest deportees include a person who had encouraged others on TikTok to go to Europe from Bangladesh by irregular routes.
Those planning to go abroad must therefore be more aware, avoid the risky sea routes, acquire skills and migrate through legal channels, he added. Previously, 35 Bangladeshis were returned from Italy, Greece and Cyprus on a special flight on 23 October.
In 2017, the Bangladesh government signed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) agreement with European countries on the return of undocumented or irregular Bangladeshis from Europe. Under it, around 5,000 Bangladeshis have returned home so far, a significant number of them from Cyprus, Italy, Romania, France, Greece and Malta.
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