'26 Bangladeshis died of COVID-19 in Middle East'

A total of 26 Bangladeshis have died of coronavirus and around 1,200 others infected with the disease in Middle Eastern countries, diplomats confirmed.

Among the dead, 15 lived in Saudi Arabia, six in the United Arab Emirates, four in Qatar and one in Kuwait.

So far around 1,000 Bangladeshis have been infected in Qatar, around 100 in Saudi Arabia and around 60 in UAE, Bangladesh missions in the respective countries confirmed.

Expatriate workers living in the Middle East have been suffering from food shortage due to lockdown and curfews in the countries.

Bangladeshi missions and communities are now helping the migrant workers with emergency food supply.

No Bangladeshis were infected with coronavirus in Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq and Oman.

Saudi Arabia

Golam Moshi, Bangladesh ambassador in Saudi Arabia, on Thursday told Prothom Alo that a total of 15 Bangladeshis died of COVID-19 in the country as of last week.

Saudi authorities confirmed that 85-100 Bangladeshis were infected in the country, he added.

Labor counselor of the Bangladesh consulate in Jeddah was among the infected people.

Golam Moshi said the migrant workers in the country are facing food shortage.

Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh and consulate in Jeddah are providing them with relief from their own funds, the ambassador added.

He also said the authorities are taking assistance from Bangladeshi community living in Saudi Arabia and different international organisations to ensure emergency food supply for the struggling migrant workers.

Qatar

The number of COVID-19 infected people is increasing in Qatar every day.

So far 10 patients died of the virus in the country. Among them four were Bangladeshis.

Ashud Ahmed, Bangladeshi ambassador in the country said they suspect around a thousand Bangladeshis have been infected in Qatar.

The Qatar authorities did not update the number of affected people after 7 April, the ambassador said.

Till then, at least 500 Bangladeshis were confirmed to have contracted the virus.

Ashud Ahmed said Qatari authorities decided to relax lockdown in central Qatar’s Al Sahaniya town from Thursday.

At least 30,000 Bangladeshis work in the town.

According to foreign ministry and Bangladeshi embassy, 416,000 Bangladeshis are working in Qatar. Around thirty thousand of them went there with ‘free visa’ who work in informal sectors. Workers of these informal sectors are hit the hardest amid the lockdown.

The embassy asked those employees to register their name online. Around seven thousand free visa workers have registered in the last three days.

The embassy is giving utmost importance on ensuring food supply for those informal sector workers.

The high commissioner said they distributed food among 1,500 migrant workers so far.

Charity organisation and well-off people from Bangladeshi community have also come forward to help the people in need, he added.

UAE

Charge de affairs of Bangladesh in UAE Mizanur Rahman told Prothom Alo a total of six Bangladeshis died and over 60 infected with coronavirus so far.

Acknowledging that there is a food shortage among the Bangladeshi workers, he said Bangladesh mission in UAE is distributing food items for around three weeks.

Bangladesh mission distributed food items among five thousand people while Bangladeshi community helped five thousand more workers, he added.

So far 318 Bangladeshis have died in 13 countries. Among them 190 in the USA, 79 in the UK, eight in Italy, six in Canada, five in Spain, and one each in Sweden, Kenya, Libya and Gambia.