Saudia and Biman Bangladesh Airlines have restored order in Dhaka to sale of air tickets to Saudi Arabia, but the migrant workers now grapple with an information black hole as their jobs hang by a thread.
Hundreds of the workers gathered at the Saudia booking counter in Karwan Bazar and Biman’s office in Motijheel even on Friday, a weekly holiday, reports bdnews24.com.
The anger simmering among them over the past week has now been replaced by intense anxiety over a possible job loss.
Police stood guard outside the offices of the airlines as the travellers were called by their token numbers.
At Motijheel, the workers who had no token were waiting in another queue. At the end of queue was Belayet Hossain from Narsingdi.
His visa expired on September 30 after several extensions of his holiday. He had to pay some money for an extension of his visa by a month.
Now the Biman officials have asked him to come for his token on October 8.
He and several others alleged slow processing of the tickets even after getting the tokens.
Some of them have been waiting since September 26.
At the Saudia office, around 100 travellers with tokens were waiting inside the gate and around 50 more workers outside.
One of those outside told bdnews24.co that security personnel did not let him approach the counter because he could not secure a token even though he had been waiting since September 26.
Mohammad Ali from Laxmipur said Saudia reissued his ticket for an October 8 flight after he had collected the token for the return ticket of a cancelled flight of March.
“I have three to four months of my one-year holiday remaining, but I am returning now because I can’t say what will happen in future,” he added.
‘Shahidul’ from Brahmanbaria came to the office to cancel his ticket for a Friday midnight flight as he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
“I had to send a relative as the authorities did not allow me to enter the office though I don’t have symptoms,” he said.
No official agreed to comment.
Biman and Saudia are operating 10 flights each to Saudi Arabia a week.
