The government has decided to form an inquiry committee to find out the reason behind forced deportation of 68 Bangladeshi migrant workers from Abu Dhabi airport.
The decision was taken in an inter-ministerial meeting participated by the senior officials of the foreign ministry, expatriate welfare ministry and civil aviation ministry.
Cvil Aviation Chairman was made the head of the committee, which was asked to submit its report by five working days.
“We should know actually what had happened. And that is why we have formed a committee to look into this matter” Expatriate Welfare Minister Imran Ahmed told the newsmen after the meeting.
“We do not want that in future, our workers will face similar situations. It causes severe financial losses for the workers”.
The minister said that according to the primary assumption, the passengers might be deported from the airport due to the lack of proper information.
Presently, identity and citizenship information, and advance passenger information are sought by the host governments.
“Citizenship information needs to be provided through online and it is the responsibility of the concerned passenger and the advance passenger informations are being provided by the concerned airlines”.
The committee will find out exactly what led to the deportation of these passengers, the minister said.
Officials in the meeting argued that since the passengers got boarding pass, it was assumed that they would face no problem in entering Abu Dhabi.
Some officials in the meeting pointed fingers at the Bangladesh Missions in Dubai saying that they had failed to provide proper information regarding the latest rules and regulations of the UAE government.
On the other hand it was also alleged that the migrant workers who have stayed more than six years in Bangladesh were issued tickets by Biman but those who stayed less than six months were denied.
Usually if the stay period in Bangladesh, is over six months, the concerned passenger face a lot of complications, an official of the overseas welfare ministry said.
The minister however, said that the meeting focused on reaching a solution to the problem.
“We are not here to exchange blames at each other, we want to ensure that this things will not repeat” he told the meeting.
Responding to a question the minister made it clear that his ministry will not take the responsibility to make up the financial loss of the 68 passengers who were forced to return from the Abu Dhabi airport.
mirmostafiz@yahoo.com