17 stranded Bangladeshis return home from Tunisia
Seventeen out of 64 Bangladeshi migrants returned home on Friday afternoon, three weeks after they were stranded in the Mediterranean off the Tunisian coast of Zarzis.
A flight of Qatar Airways carrying them landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 5:00pm, said sources in Airport immigration.
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 Organization for Migration (IOM). Twenty Bangladeshis were given tickets in the first phase but three of them refused to return.
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.
