Shortage of flights are greatly hampering manpower export to Malaysia forcing thousands of job seekers in Bangladesh to wait for indefinite periods, The Daily Star reported Saturday.

Around 14,000 workers in Bangladesh have completed all formalities for flying to Malaysia but their departure is being delayed for long just because the flights cannot carry more than 700 passengers to Malaysia daily, an official of the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) of Bangladesh was quoted as saying.

A total of 43,478 workers left for Malaysia from October last year to April 24. And more than 60,000 have been granted calling visas, and fingerprints of about 80,000 have been sent to that country for visa processing.

Presently Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur flights include once a day direct flight of Malaysian Airline with a carrying capacity of 350 passengers, twice a week flights of GMG Airlines capable of carrying 140 passengers each and three flights of Bangladesh Biman a week with a capacity of carrying 300 passengers each.

There are also some indirect flights to Malaysia but, in all, the airlines cannot carry more than 700 passengers daily, the BMET official said.

Source: Xinhua