Saudi Arabia sends back 406 Bangladeshi workers

Saudi Arabia has sent back 406 more Bangladeshi migrant workers.

A special flight of Saudi Airlines carrying the deported workers landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 6:30 pm on Thursday.

Dr Nasrin Aktar, medical officer of the Dhaka airport, "We conducted health screening of the Saudi-returnees and sent them into home quarantine except two who showed coronavirus symptoms."

The two persons were sent to Kuwait-Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital, she added.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh sent a letter to the Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry requesting the ministry to take necessary measures to help the returnees.

Zahid Anwar, deputy director of Wage Earners' Welfare Board under the expatriate welfare ministry said, "The returnees were kept in deportation centres in Riyadh and Dammam."

Three Sweden-returnees sent to Ashkona Hajj camp

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) released four more Europe-returnees for home quarantine from Shahjalal International Airport after conducting their health screening on Thursday.

However, three other Sweden returnees were sent to Ashkona Hajj camp for quarantine on Wednesday. 

Dr Shahnila Ferdousi, line director of the Centre for Disease Control, DGHS, said, "The three Sweden-returnees do not have any corona symptoms. As they are elderly persons, we have sent them to the Ashkona camp under the instructions of top officials."

Dr Nasrin Aktar, medical officer of the Dhaka airport, said, "The three Sweden-returnees arrived at the airport on a flight of Qatar Airways 4.50 pm on Wednesday, while the four Slovenia-returnees came on a flight of Turkish Airlines on at 8:00 am on Thursday."

According to information received from the DGHS, some 43 Europe-returnees are currently in quarantine at Gazipur.

On the 14^th of this month, the government suspended on arrival visas for all countries and banned flights carrying passengers from all European countries, except the United Kingdom, for two weeks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Shahjalal airport's Director AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan said all passengers coming from European countries will be pushed back after arriving here.

Seven hospitalised with fever after returning from abroad

Seven passengers who returned from different countries have been taken to the capital's Kuwait-Bangladesh Friendship Hospital as they were suffering from a high fever.

"They were found having high body temperature after initial screening at the airport. Later, they were rushed to the Kuwait-Bangladesh Friendship Hospital," AHM Touhid-ul Ahsan said at a press briefing on Thursday.

"The expatriates arrived in Dhaka from different countries including Qatar, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, Oman, and Kuwait," he added