Bangladesh scraps plans to evacuate 171 nationals from locked-down Chinese cities

The failure to arrange a flight has forced the government to scrap its plans to bring back 171 Bangladeshis from the locked-down cities in China amid a deadly coronavirus outbreak.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen revealed the decision to the media after an event in Dhaka on Saturday as the death toll from the disease passed 700 in China with more than 34,000 confirmed cases globally.

The first cases in December were traced to a seafood market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the heart of the epidemic from where Bangladesh evacuated 312 citizens and quarantined them in Dhaka on Feb 1.

The government said the number of Bangladeshis who wanted to return but could not be brought back is 171.

“We’ve spent much for those who want to return now, but still it’s not possible,” Momen said, citing that the pilots of the special Wuhan flight have been denied entry to other countries.

After the evacuation, Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam had said a refusal by the crew to fly the plane is a big problem to bring back the 171 others.

“If we can find a plane to charter, that will be the best option. And in that case Chinese planes will be the first preference,” the secretary had added.

Most of the 312 Bangladeshi evacuees from China have been quarantined at the Ashkona Hajj Camp near the Dhaka airport. The rest of them have been hospitalised with symptoms similar to those of coronavirus infection.

Momen also said on Saturday that it would have been possible to evacuate the Bangladeshis from China if the government could manage a chartered Chinese plane.

“China had agreed once as well. But they refused later. It’s a sensitive matter,” he said.

“We can’t send any flight. No crew member agrees to go there either. So, we’ve told them [stranded Bangladeshis] to wait,” the minister said.

Some of the Bangladesh nationals studying at the Three Gorges University in Yichang, some 285 kilometres from Wuhan, told bdnews24.com that a total of 172 Bangladeshi students have been stranded there.

They complained of a shortage of food and drinking water due to the lockdown.

Momen denied the allegations saying the Chinese authorities were sending food and water properly on time to the 23 places where the Bangladeshis stay.

The Bangladesh Embassy in Beijing was maintaining regular communication with the stranded Bangladeshis and a team of 384-member group was continuously was enquiring about them, according to the minister.