DHAKA, May 15, 2020 (BSS) – The UK Government today announced to facilitate
three further chartered flights from Bangladesh to bring more than 900
British travellers home to the UK amid flight suspension due to COVID-19
pandemic.
The flights will be operated from Dhaka to London on May 20, 26, and 31,
according to a press release sent by British High Commission here today.
Two connecting flights between Sylhet and Dhaka are also taking place on
each of the days the flights from Dhaka to London are scheduled while people
who are most vulnerable will be prioritized for reparation seats on the
flights, it added.
Earlier, the British government took back home around 1900 Britons who
have been stuck here due to coronavirus outbreak through nine chartered
flights in two phases.
To register interest in these flights, and for more information, British
travellers should visit the travel advice pages for Bangladesh, the release
said and advised that those who have previously registered for a chartered
flight do not need to re-register.
On the occasion, the UK’s Foreign Office Minister of State Lord Tariq
Ahmad said these three flights would mean more than 900 British nationals can
return home, bringing the total number of travellers brought back to the UK
from Bangladesh to more than 2800.
“We have worked closely with the Government of Bangladesh, airlines and
local authorities to help British travellers in Bangladesh return to the UK,
focused on helping the most vulnerable people as a priority,” British High
Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson said.
Since the coronavirus outbreak began, the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth
Office (FCO) has worked consistently with governments, air carriers and
travel companies to help British travellers return home safely while
supported with o75 million for arranging special chartered flights to
priority countries, focused on helping the most vulnerable people, he added.
On Thursday, Bangladesh today extended the ongoing ban on flight operation
for the sixth consecutive time till May 30 to and from all European countries
and the nations that restricted the entry of Bangladeshis to their
territories as well as on all domestic routes over the coronavirus fear.
Other countries, including the USA, India, Japan, Canada, Australia,
Turkey, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Bhutan, Myanmar and
different European countries also operated several special chartered flights
amid the flight suspension to repatriate their citizens from here.
Bangladesh also repatriated stranded Bangladeshis from different other
countries including the UK, Australia, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia while
a chartered flight has also been planned to bring back Bangladesh nationals
from the USA.
More than 300,000 people have so far been killed and nearly 4.5 million
infected worldwide by the COVID-19, which has left half of humanity under
some form of lockdown and pushed the global economy towards its worst
downturn.