Diplomatic Correspondent :
At least 1800 Bangladeshi in Lebanon has registered to return home amid the escalating violence there as the situation is deteriorating regularly.
“So far 1800 Bangladeshis who want to return home have registered with our embassy in Lebanon. Of them only 160-165 are properly documented individuals. But rest of them around 90 per cent is undocumented.
They need to pay fine for clearance to return. The government is paying for it,” Foreign Adviser Md Touhid Hossain said.
While briefing the journalists at his office on Thursday, he said the Foreign Ministry has sought cooperation of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) for the Bangladeshis who are undocumented.
However, he said that they cannot bring back all the registered Bangladeshis at a time because flight ticket is a major obstacle here. “We are not getting more than 50 seats in a flight amid the escalating situation. We are also thinking to bring them back through waterways to Turkey and from there to Bangladesh by air. But it is very expensive. For the time being, let 50 -52 persons return by flights gradually,” he said.
About the return of the first batch, he said, “At first the documented individuals would come back from 20 to 22 October.
Regarding the total number of Bangladeshis in Lebanon, Touhid Hossain said that the accurate figure cannot be said because many of them are undocumented.
“However, the figure would be 70,000 to 1,00,000. This is not a small figure,” he said.
He also said despite the conflicts in Lebanon, many Bangladeshis do not want to return home because they have gone there after spending a huge amount of money.
“The Bangladeshi citizens who are living in the conflict free zone in Lebanon are fine. They are sending remittance to their families. But those who are in the conflict-ridden areas are in trouble. However, many of them do not want to return as they spent a huge amount of money,” he explained.
“Besides, these people think what they will do after returning home. Despite knowing the danger they want to stay there,” he added.
Earlier, Bangladesh embassy in Lebanon requested the irregular expatriate workers, who want to return home amid the ongoing conflict there, to fill the designated forms at the embassy before collecting exit visas.
The embassy stated that individuals who have a valid passport but no residence permit (iqama), or who have not collected their residence permit, are considered irregular workers.