MIDDLEEAST TYCOON NEWS DESK:A Bangladeshi worker was killed in an airstrike in Lebanon, the foreign ministry in Dhaka reported on Sunday, as the Israeli bombardment complicated efforts to repatriate citizens.
The ministry estimates that between 70,000 and 100,000 Bangladeshi nationals are employed in Lebanon, many as laborers or domestic help.
The initial flights organized by the Bangladeshi government, in collaboration with the UN’s International Organization for Migration, returned numerous citizens from Beirut last month.
Mohammad Nizam, 31, lost his life on Saturday afternoon during a reported strike while he was stopping at a café on his way to work in Beirut, according to a statement from Bangladesh’s ambassador to Lebanon, Javed Tanveer Khan.
Mohammad Jalaluddin stated that his younger brother Nizam had lived in Beirut for over a decade and was not among the estimated 1,800 Bangladeshis who had signed up for an evacuation flight home.
“We wish to lay him to rest in our ancestral home and are currently awaiting the government’s response,” Jalaluddin told AFP.
However, senior Bangladeshi foreign ministry official Shah Mohammad Tanvir Monsur noted that arranging a flight into Beirut is challenging.
“Due to the ongoing conflict, there are very few flights operating from Lebanon to Bangladesh,” Monsur said.
“It is becoming increasingly difficult to repatriate our citizens who have registered to return home.”
Israel significantly intensified its air campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon in September, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. It has since initiated a ground offensive aimed at pushing the group back from its northern border.
