Bangladeshis in Sudan: Evacuation process to start on Tuesday

The government decided to start the process to evacuate stranded Bangladeshi expatriates from Sudan on Tuesday .

The Bangladeshis, who have registered for the evacuation, will be taken to the Port of Sudan by nine buses from a place on the outskirts of Khartoum, State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam told reporters at a briefing in the foreign ministry.

From Port of Sudan they will be shifted to Jeddah by ship and then they will be brought back to Dhaka hopefully on May 3 or 4, the state minister said. Narrating the process, he said that several officials of the Jeddah consulate have already arrived in the Port of Sudan with the help of the Indonesian government.

They along with the officials of the Khartoum Mission will supervise the shifting of Bangladeshis from Sudan to Saudi Arabia. The state minister also told that some Saudi ships have been arranged to cross the Red Sea for transferring the Bangladeshis from port of Sudan to Saudi Arabia.

He said that the Bangladesh is will be sent back to Dhaka on the next available flights by phases. Priority will be given to those who have legal documents as well as passports, and those who do not have legal documents will be provided with the necessary travel permit as soon as possible to facilitate the evacuation. Responding to a query, Mr Alam said that if necessary special flights will be arranged to bring the Bangladeshi back home from Jeddah.

Presently there are around 1,500 Bangladeshis, but only 700 of them have registered for the evacuation so far. The foreign ministry held a high-level meeting on Sunday to facilitate the evacuation process smoothly. Representatives from other concerned ministries were also present in the meeting. The state minister also urged the Bangladeshis to contact the nearest Bangladesh missions apart from the Sudan Embassy. Telephone numbers of Sudan Mission have already been circulated by the Foreign Ministry in this purpose.

If they contact our missions in neighbouring countries, like Egypt or Ethiopia, they will be included in the list, the state minister added. He said that the Bangladeshis who have registered for evacuation have to reach the point from where the buses would start for the port of Sudan on their own. But after being on board in the bus, the government will take all the responsibilities, Even they will be provided with some cash, the state minister added. He informed that so far 35 Bangladeshis left Sudan to nearby countries on their own after the beginning of that in fighting on April 15.

Violent civil war is going on in Khartoum due to the power struggle between the two security forces of the government. Several countries have evacuated their nationals from Sudan last week but Bangladesh could not start the process yet. Responding to a question why Bangladesh had failed to start the evacuation process earlier, the state minister said that the government had taken steps to start the evacuation at the earliest possible time. It is not true that Bangladesh is slow in starting the process.

Many countries are yet to start the evacuation process, the state minister said, adding that the Bangladesh mission in Khartoum was not in a position to run its operation due to the ongoing gun battle.

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