17 Bangladeshis return home from Tunisia

Seventeen Bangladeshis, among the 64 stranded for three weeks in the Mediterranean, returned home on Friday from Tunisia under special arrangements.

Shariful Hasan, programme head of BRAC Migration, confirmed that a flight of Qatar Airways carrying them landed at Dhaka airport at 5:15pm.

Sources at Bangladesh Embassy in Libya said Tunisia allowed the 75 migrants, including 64 Bangladeshis, to disembark on condition that they will return home.

They were brought to a shelter house regulated jointly by Red Crescent and International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Twenty Bangladeshis were given tickets in the first phase but three of them refused to return.

Thirty-three more Bangladeshis are set to be deported to their home country from Tunisia in the coming days, Middle East Eye reports quoting aid workers in Bangladesh.

Sources said the embassy fears that other Bangladeshis might refuse to go back. It will be difficult to get assistance from Tunisia in such crisis later.

At least 65 migrants drowned last month as their boat capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off the Tunisian coast after they had left Libya to reach Europe.

Source: unb