247 stranded Bangladesh citizens return home by special flight from USA

Shamim Ahmad, Washington D.C.: A special flight with 247 Bangladesh citizens stranded in the U.S.A. amid coronavirus pandemic departs for Bangladesh tomorrow (Friday) May 15 from Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD).

The sophisticated chartered airbus A 350-900 of Qatar Airlines is scheduled to take off at 11pm from Dulles Airport and arrive at Doha International Airport at 7pm on May 16.

After one-hour technical stopover at Doha airport, the plane will leave Doha at 8pm (local time). During the stopover, all passengers will have to remain seated in the aircraft.

The flight is scheduled to reach Dhaka Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on May 17 at 4am (local time).

On arrival at Dhaka airport, the passengers will have to submit Health Declaration Forms to Bangladesh Immigration officials.  Bangladesh embassy in Washington D.C. will give the forms to the Qatar airlines for distribution among the passengers.

All traveling passengers will have to carry Covid-19 symptom-free medical certificates. The embassy helped the passengers who could not collect the medical certificates in cooperation with a pool of Bangladeshi doctors here.

The travelling passengers include mostly Bangladeshi students studying in different colleges and universities in the USA, Bangladesh citizens who came to America on tourist and business visas and some government and non-government officials.

On May 4, the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs chartered the flight of Qatar Airlines to bring home the stranded Bangladeshis in the USA. Earlier On March 30, the Bangladesh Embassy in D.C. and the two Consulates General in New York and Los Angeles, on an instruction of the Foreign Ministry, circulated a notice through their websites seeking information from the Bangladeshis who had been stranded in USA amid COVID- 19 pandemic situation.

From March 30 to April 30, a large number of stranded Bangladeshi citizens provided their information by email to the Bangladesh Missions showing interest to return to Bangladesh by special charter flight at their own expenses. They also requested the Bangladesh Government through the Bangladesh Missions to facilitate their return to homeland by special flight.