Body of Bangladeshi migrant worker Dipali to arrive Thursday

The body of Bangladeshi female worker Dipali Begum (34), who was killed in an Israeli attack in Lebanon, is being brought to the country after a month.

Her body is expected to arrive at Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 11:20 PM Thursday.

The matter has been confirmed today, Tuesday, by sources from the Bangladesh Embassy in Beirut and the Faridpur District Expatriate Welfare Centre.

A message signed by Mohammad Anwar Hossain, First Secretary (Labour) and Head of Mission at the Bangladesh Embassy in Beirut, stated that Dipali's body is currently preserved in the morgue of Rafik Hariri Hospital in Beirut.

All administrative procedures, including obtaining a certified police report and a permit for sending the body, have already been completed by the embassy.

The message further states that the body will leave Beirut Airport on a flight of Emirates Airlines at 3:45 PM local time Wednesday. After transiting through Dubai, the body will land at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Bangladesh at 11:20 PM on Thursday.

Dipali's younger sister Laiju Begum said, "The Bangladesh Embassy in Beirut and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have contacted us to confirm the return of the body. Even though it is late, the fact that we will receive my sister's body is comforting news for us. If we can complete the airport procedures and receive the body by 2 AM, we will start for our home that night."

Assistant Director of the Faridpur Expatriate Welfare Centre, Md Ashiq Siddiqui, mentioned that due to the war situation and irregular flight operations, it took some time to bring the body back.

Once in the country, the body will be sent to her village home by free ambulance under government management. The family will be given Tk 35,000 at the airport for burial and later an additional financial assistance of Tk 300,000.

Dipali Akhtar, daughter of day labourer Sheikh Moka from Purba Shalehpur Munsirchar village in Charbhadrasan upazila of Faridpur, went to Lebanon in 2011 at just 19 years of age to escape her family's poverty.

She had been supporting her family with her earnings while abroad. On 8 April, she was critically injured in an Israeli air strike on a building in Beirut, and later succumbed to her injuries at Rafik Hariri Hospital.