Kuwaiti expats demand vaccination to join work
On Sunday, around 300 expats placed the demand at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity
Kuwait expatriates, who came to Bangladesh amid the pandemic, urged the government to vaccinate them so they can return to join work.
Around 300 migrant workers pressed home the demand at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters' Unity on Sunday.
Al Amin, from Cumilla, said, "My family and I have been living in a terrible condition as I could not go back to Kuwait. I am not asking for vaccination to save myself from Covid-19, rather I am asking the government to save my family from starvation."
Expats said residency visas (known as "Iqama" in Kuwait) of many of them had already expired and those with valid Iqamas could not go to Kuwait as the Kuwaiti government was not allowing expats to enter the country without being vaccinated.
Shahjalal, another expat, said, "Many of us do not have national identity (NID) cards and quite a lot of us are under the age of 40, so we were not eligible to get the vaccine shots when the government rolled out a mass inoculation drive."
He urged the government to immunise the expatriates by verifying information in their passports.
Khairul Islam, expat from Narsingdi, said the Kuwaiti government approved commercial flights from several countries, including Bangladesh, from 1 August.
He demanded that the government vaccinate Kuwaiti expatriates as soon as possible, so they can go back to work.
