Bahrain urged to take back Bangladeshi expats

Bangladesh has urged the Bahrain government to take back expatriate Bangladeshis who were stuck due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, made the request during a telephone conversation with his Bahrain counterpart Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Alzayani on Tuesday.

Dr Momen thanked Bahrain for regularizing visas of 30,000 irregular Bangladeshis amid the pandemic, during the nine-month general amnesty from April to December last year.

He urged the Bahrain foreign minister to extend the general amnesty period.

There are still 25,000 more irregular Bangladeshis there.

The two foreign ministers agreed to hold the second foreign office consultation (FOC) in Dhaka soon.

Momen thanked Bahrain for distributing vaccines among all, including Bangladesh citizens in Bahrain, for free.

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Earlier, Bangladesh requested the Bahrain government for regularization of irregular Bangladeshis, or whose visas expired, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Bahrain government did not send back any Bangladeshi forcibly amid the pandemic, the Foreign Ministry added.

However, many Bangladeshis returned home, either willingly, or due to the Covid-19 situation, it said.

The Bahrain government only deported those Bangladeshis who were in prison or in deportation camps under a general amnesty, the ministry said.

The government of Bangladesh is continuing diplomatic efforts to resume the issuance of visas for Bangladeshis, which has remained halted since 2018.

According to the ministry, the government is working sincerely to send back Bangladeshi migrants to Bahrain, including those who had returned home before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Bangladesh mission in Bahrain is in constant communication with the Bahrain government.

The Bangladeshi expats who had returned home before the pandemic and whose visas expired were urged to register online with the Bangladesh mission in Manama to renew their visas. However, only 967 Bangladeshi expatriates registered online.

The Bangladesh mission has already submitted the list to the Bahrain Foreign Ministry, requesting to consider their cases.

Those who are yet to register online still possess scope to renew their visas.