Bangladesh mission in Beirut on Sunday published the first list of 119 expatriates who were willing to return home from the war-torn Lebanon as Israel continued attacks in the country.
The embassy did not publish the full list of the aspirants but estimated that some 2,000 people would back home in cooperation with the International Organisation for Migration.
On request, the IOM will arrange chartered flights to bring back Bangladeshis willing to leave Lebanon amid Israeli airstrikes.
On Wednesday, the Beirut mission asked stranded Bangladeshis who willing to back home to fill-up the designated form.
On Friday, the mission closed the application process amid request from the migrants to extend the application deadline.
Bangladesh鈥檚 first labour secretary in Beirut Mohammad Anwar Hossain said that they were evaluating the application in two categories 鈥揹ocumented and undocumented.
At the first phase, the embassy evaluated the 119 applications of documented migrants and found 50 per cent of them were ready to fly while rest half lack papers.
鈥榃e will try to manage an immediate flight for the documented migrants,鈥� he said.
For undocumented migrants, the mission would ask support from the government of Lebanon to bring them back.
Migrant workers in different shelters were crying to return home as Israel increased attacks on Lebanon and killed several thousand people so far.
Stranded Bangladeshis alleged that they were living inhuman lives in the war-ravaged country because of the shortage of food, drinking water, and shelter.
They urged the government to take them back home immediately as the situation had been deteriorating in the country since Israel intensified attacks further.
According to media reports, at least 2,500 people, including dozens of children, were killed since Israel intensified a bombing campaign in Lebanon on September 23.
According to Bangladesh鈥檚 Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training statistics, at least 2, 67,364 Bangladeshis had migrated into the country since 2002. Of them, 61,786 migrated since 2015.
Migrants estimated that over one lakh Bangladeshi migrants were now working in the West Asian country.
