Hightlights
- There are estimated 200 Australian citizens and permanent residents stranded in Bangladesh
- Returned travellers to Australia have to pay heaps of money
- Many of them have lost jobs, incurring huge debt in businesses
SBS Bangla has spoken to Mr Shakib Ahmed, Ms Kaniz Fatema and Mr Badhon Khandakar about their ordeal.
Shakib Ahmed, a permanent resident of Australia, went to Bangladesh due to family reasons including his mother's illness and was contemplating to get back to Australia during March-April 2020.
At that time, due to the closure of international flights in and out of Bangladesh during COVID 19, his departure for Australia was delayed and he has not been able to return yet.
Mr Ahmed said he would have to return to Australia by August or his Australian permanent residency would expire.
Desperate to return to Australia, Mr. Ahmed's family of four saw their bookings for their economy tickets were being canceled one after another, booked business class tickets for which he was supposed to pay staggering 2.1 million Bangladeshi Taka or AUD 34,000.
Mr Shakib Ahmed is in risk of loosing his permanent residency status. Source: Shakib Ahmed
Shakib Ahmed and his wife have both resigned from their jobs in Bangladesh and are currently out of work.
Mr. Ahmed said, “Even if I paid this huge amount of airfare, there is no guarantee that we would be able to return to Australia.”
Mr Ahmed said he and several others had emailed to the Australian High Commission but had received only one reply from the First Secretary. In her reply she wrote that “since I am not an Australian citizen and she could not help us and also they had no repatriation flights from Bangladesh.”
Complaints of discrimination against repatriation flights
Mr. Ahmed said “Although there are repatriation flights from India and several other countries, there is none from Bangladesh.”
"There are four to five Qantas repatriation flights from India every ten days. Even though there are 200 confirmed passengers from Bangladesh, why don't they arrange repatriation flights," he asked in an email to the First Secretary of the High Commission.
"These two hundred people are guaranteed to get on the flight with paying in advance, but I have not received any further reply."
Meanwhile, a Facebook post from the High Commission said that since commercial flights are on, they have no plans for a repatriation flight.
Mr Ahmed said some comments were deleted and many were blocked.
"Apart from that, we have emailed to the members of parliament, including Ms Marise Payne and Mr. Daniel Andrews, but have not received any response," he said.
Ms Kaniz Fatema will lose her job if she's unable to come back to Australia soon. Source: Kaniz Fatema
An appeal to the Bangladeshi community
Mr Ahmed appealed to members of the Bangladeshi community in Australia, "If they raise the issue to the major political parties in their area, members of parliament or influential people, they may listen to us."
"The fact that India is getting so many repatriation flights is for the action of their community leaders," he said.
An expectation with a repatriation flight may put an end to the problem
Shakib Ahmed said, "We don't want three or four flights like India is given. At least one repatriation flight will solve our problem."
Kaniz Fatima, who works for a company in Melbourne, is one of the stranded Australians. She travelled to Bangladesh with her young child several months ago, has not been able to return to Australia.
Ms Fatima said, “My husband is still in Melbourne. Now I’m stuck in Bangladesh with a little child.” With new records of corona cases everyday and the trepidation for dengue outbreak in Bangladesh, they are confined to their homes.
"We are not getting any flights back to Australia. We have tried many times to talk to the DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), they have asked us to register, and that is from Istanbul. But we are not getting any flights to Istanbul even," she said.
“We’ve got the advice by the Australian High Commission to consider the regular commercial flights, but there’s no such flight easily available at this moment. Those who have already booked flights are being cancelled."
"Moreover, the cost of a commercial flight is much higher, four to five hundred thousands Taka (6,500 to 7,000 in Australian dollars) per person," said Ms. Fatima.
Besides working in Melbourne, Kaniz Fatima has been studying in a diploma course. Current situation put her on risk of losing her job because it has been more than three months since she left Australia.
"I was doing a course, and waiting for a work placement. If I can't do the placement now, my efforts for the last two years will go in vein," she said.
Sydney resident Mr Badhan Khandakar has the same issues as he’s unable to return Australia due to renewed COVID 19 outbreak in Bangladesh. When Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently announced halving the international arrivals, they had to anticipate only a slim chance to be able get on board.
The announcement puts couple of hundreds of Australians and permanent residents in distress who are waiting to return to Australia. Only two airlines operate flights to Australia at this time.
Mr Badhan Khandaker said, "We have all been trying to get back to Australia since the beginning of the year but failed due to repeated rescheduling of regular flights between Bangladesh and Australia by various commercial airlines.”
Mr. Khandaker said he has been stuck in Bangladesh for a long time and is currently unemployed.
Mr Badhon Khandakar's air ticket has been rescheduled several times. Source: Badhon Khandakar
"We are now going through the worst days of our lives, financially, mentally and in many cases physically. Many of us have lost our jobs or businesses due to not arriving in Australia on time, and are unable to repay our bank loans due to lack of income."
Badhan Khandaker said he tried to contact the Australian High Commission in Dhaka requesting a repatriation flight several times, but in each case they did not provide any specific information.
"When we tried to contact the Australian High Commission in Bangladesh, they did not want to help us. Despite repeated contacts, no reply was received from the Australian High Commission. All of us are being blocked from their Facebook page, which is a completely unprofessional behaviour by an official Australian government social media source."
"We are Australian citizens who pay regular taxes, and we have the right to ask help to our diplomatic missions for the protection of Australian citizens. They are depriving us from our freedom as Australian citizens without providing protection. We are being deprived of the desired services from the High Commission,” Said Mr. Khandaker.
Meanwhile, a Sydney-based businessman, who did not want to be named, said that after being stuck in Bangladesh for a long time, he is risk of incurring huge bad debt, which may leave him to bankruptcy.
Response from DFAT
SBS Bangla approached the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for their response regarding the issue.
A spokesperson gave us a statement saying, “DFAT’s highest priority at this time is helping vulnerable Australians overseas.
Over 655,000 Australians have arrived in Australia since the Government recommended that people reconsider the need to travel abroad.
DFAT continues to work hard to return Australians by helping Australians to access scheduled commercial flights within passenger caps and through organising facilitated commercial flights which prioritise vulnerable Australians, above the existing passenger caps.
Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has facilitated 154 flights on which more than 23,000 Australians have returned. We have provided various types of assistance to many more Australians, including to return via commercial means.
We encourage Australians seeking to return to Australia to register their details with DFAT. Australians overseas can also contact the nearest Australian Embassy, High Commission or Consulate or call the Department’s 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre (CEC) on +61-2-6261 3305.”
However, there was no definite comment on repatriation flights from Bangladesh in the statement.
To listen to the whole conversation in Bangla click the audio player above.
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