The government of the Maldives has announced 353 Bangladeshi nationals have been repatriated from the Maldives via an evacuation flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines.
The repatriation of 353 Bangladeshis was confirmed by a tweet from Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid. In his tweet, the foreign minister added a further 70 Bangladeshis will be repatriated on the Bangladesh Air Force flight which arrived in the Maldives today. He thanked the government of Bangladesh and all agencies involved from both countries for their assistance in the repatriation efforts.
National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) had earlier revealed the decision to repatriate 500 Bangladeshi workers living in the Maldives. NEOC said the Bangladeshi nationals would be repatriated on flights of Biman Bangladesh Airlines as well as the national airline, Maldivian.
The government is working on repatriating undocumented workers as they are being deprived of basic human rights and subjected to mistreatment due to the COVID-19 crisis. The government has previously repatriated 68 undocumented workers on an evacuation flight of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The flight had arrived in the Maldives with 53 locals stranded in Bangladesh and 18 locals stranded in Nepal.