B'desh asks IOM to evacuate citizens from Lebanon

DHAKA, July 19: Bangladesh has asked the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) to help evacuate some 10,000 Bangladeshis from Lebanon in the wake of the current Middle East conflicts, a senior foreign ministry official said today.

An IOM official in Dhaka confirmed this.

''Bangladesh has formally requested us to to take necessary steps to evacuate its citizens from Lebanon.'' IOM representative for South Asia, Sahidul Haq, told Reuters.

''We have already sent an assessment mission to Lebanon ...

Primarily we are planning to send them (Bangladeshis) to Syria or any other safer place, where we get access,'' he added.

Bangladesh has no diplomatic mission in Lebanon, so it is difficult to know the actual conditions of Bangladeshis there, mostly expatriate workers, officials said.

REUTERS

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