Special flight with 242 stranded Bangladeshis on board departs USA for Bangladesh

Shamim Ahmad, Washington D.C.: A special flight carrying 242 Bangladesh citizens stranded in the U.S.A. amid coronavirus pandemic departed for Bangladesh from Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) Friday night (May 15).

Bangladesh Ambassador to the U.S.A. Mohammad Ziauddin saw off the passengers and wished their safe flight. Embassy officials were present on the occasion.

 The sophisticated chartered A 350-900 airbus of Qatar Airways took off at 11-04 pm from Dulles International Airport. The plane is scheduled to land at Doha International Airport at 7pm (Doha time) on May 16. 

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

The flight is scheduled to land at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on May 17 (Sunday) at 4am (BST).

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

The passengers also include 49 school and college students who came to the US under Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) program.

On Thursday, Assistant Secretary of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Ms. Marie Royce had telephone conversation with Ambassador Mohammad Ziauddin and discussed repatriation of Bangladeshi students who were in the USA under the ECA program.

During the conversation, Ms. Royce appreciated the Government of Bangladesh and the Ambassador for arranging a special flight to repatriate stranded Bangladeshis in the US including the ECA students.

She stressed on safe and quick return of the repatriated students to their respective homes.

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

All traveling passengers got Covid-19 symptom-free medical certificates. The embassy helped those passengers who could not arrange the medical certificates in cooperation with a pool of Bangladeshi doctors here.

On May 4, the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs chartered the flight of Qatar Airlines to bring home the stranded Bangladeshis. Oryx Aviation Ltd., General Sales Agent in Bangladesh for Qatar Airways Cargo Flight, handled the chartering and ticketing formalities for this special flight. 

Earlier On March 30, the Bangladesh Embassy in D.C. and the two Consulates General in New York and Los Angeles, on an advice of the Foreign Ministry, circulated a notice through their websites seeking information from the Bangladeshis who had been stranded in the U.S.A. amid COVID-19 pandemic.  

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 home by special flight at their own expenses.