The first flight carrying deported Bangladeshis will arrive by this week from Kuwait by a special flight of the Kuwait Airlines.
More than 10,000 undocumented and convicted Bangladeshi workers are in the queue to be deported from different countries hit by the coronavirus outbreak, officials said.
"The first batch of the deportees from Kuwait will arrive by this week unless there is any change of plan," foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told the FE on Monday.
Kuwait has sent a list of 337 convicted and undocumented Bangladeshis in the first phase, officials of the foreign and expatriate welfare ministries said.
Initially, there was a list of 147 Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait, who are scheduled to be deported in the first flight, but the number will be changed, said the officials.
The Kuwait government is bearing the expenses for the deportation flights.
A couple of days ago, some Bangladeshi workers along with Umrah pilgrims, were deported from Saudi Arabia.
The foreign minister said other countries are also deporting Bangladeshi workers, who are staying there illegally.
According to the Ministry of Overseas Employment, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will send back 209 and Malaysia will deport 455 Bangladeshis shortly in the first phase, followed by more.
The Maldives also wants to send back several hundred undocumented Bangladeshis.
According to unofficial sources, the number will be around 15,000 in the primary phase.
Many of them are convicted for various crimes. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain have released nearly 1,000 Bangladeshis from jail to ease pressure amid the outbreak of corona pandemic.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman will also deport Bangladeshis, but they are yet to finalise the list of deportees.
Expatriates' welfare and overseas employment minister Imran Ahmed said that the government had asked them to repatriate Bangladeshi workers keeping the local quarantine facility in mind.
"We cannot receive more people than our capacity" he said, adding that because quarantine is mandatory for all the returnees.
He said the exact number of workers to be deported from the Middle East cannot be ascertained yet.
Responding to a question, he said though the deportation will have a negative impact on the remittances inflow, the country has to take them back since they are the people of this land.
The foreign minister dismissed the notion that deportation was "a diplomatic failure" on the Bangladesh side.
These countries are sending illegal workers of other countries like Pakistan and India as well.
Instead, Bangladesh has been "successful" in pursuing these countries to send back Bangladeshi workers in limited number and in phases.
Dr Momen pointed out that most of these workers went there by illegal means.
"And our expatriate welfare ministry has no record of most of them," he said.
Dr Ahmed Munirus Salehi, additional secretary of the expatriates' welfare ministry, said that initially, Kuwait intended to send 147 Bangladeshi workers, but last Saturday the ministry came to know that the number would be revised
Earlier, they had provided a list of 147 for the first flight and 190 for the second flight, he added.
He, however, said that none of these countries will deport any Bangladeshi worker, who contracted the virus.
After their arrival, they will be sent to quarantine facilities, which have been established in several places near the airport.
The Armed Forces Division and the Department of Health Services will supervise the quarantine process.
The home ministry officials said those who were convicted in the Middle East for various crimes will have to fulfil the rest of their jail terms upon return home.
