With the new strand of the deadly coronavirus detected in the UK many countries are cancelling regular flights which is also expected to affect thousands of migrant workers scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia and Oman.
Reports say that about 40,000 new visas of the migrant workers are expected to be cancelled if Saudi Arabia continues to ban international flights.
The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) has announced the suspension of all international flights to Saudi Arabia due to the spread of new type of coronavirus in the UK.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines has suspended all the 21 Saudi Arabia-bound flights for one week with effect from Monday, hours after the Saudi civil aviation authorities suspended all international flights over the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus first identified in the UK. The state-run airline also suspended all flights to Mascot in Oman for one week with immediate effect as the country suspended all international flights.
As a result, all flights of Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Saudi Arabian Airlines to Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam have been suspended for one week due to the restrictions.
Apart from this, those who had made all the preparations by buying tickets to go to the countries, now their travel is in extreme uncertainty.
Md Mokabbir Hossain, managing director and chief executive officer of Biman, said in a video message, "Saudi Arabia has suspended flights to all international destinations for a week from December 21. That's why we've also canceled a total of 21 flights to three destinations in Saudi Arabia for a week now.”
He further said, “About 5,000 passengers were scheduled to fly from Dhaka while 6,000 were scheduled to return to Dhaka from the Saudi Arabia in the week.”
According to the Expatriate Welfare Desk at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, from April 1 to November 30, some 3,26,758 expatriates returned from 28 foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar. Among them 2,87,484 are men and 39,274 are women.
It is learned that most of the expatriate workers have returned from Saudi Arabia with out-pass after their imprisonment till November 30. In the last eight months, a total of 96,687 expatriate workers, including 17,316 women workers, have been forced to return from the country.
Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, secretary general of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), an organization of manpower exporters, said, "About 70,000 visas were ready for Saudi Arabia before the coronavirus epidemic. But due to the epidemic, these visa holders could not travel. These visas were later renewed and some workers were leaving the country. As many as 40,000 workers have been affected by the new postponement of flights. Even if the flights are not resumed soon, these 40,000 visas may expire. This could make the situation more complicated."
