One of the many challenges facing Bangladeshis is availability and access to information, and its repercussions on the public. We always hear that things are digitized in this country, but reality tells us otherwise. Thus, people suffer and corruption occurs.
Let me share my experience and point out some facts about Covid-19 for Bangladeshi expats going abroad. By the end of the article, it will help any expat go abroad and overcome the hassles I, and many others, have had to face.
Covid-19 screening is the new normal for travellers. A person travelling abroad needs a negative Covid-19 RT-PCR test report and a vaccination certificate alongside his/her air ticket. Sometimes, depending on an individual's destination or airline, the RT-PCR test has to be taken 24/48/72 hours before reaching the destination country. That is straightforward.
However, the travel becomes very stressful if the traveller from Bangladesh becomes Covid-19 positive after taking the screening test for the trip. Permitted Covid-19 centres provide two standard options for everyone and those travelling abroad. The second option requires travellers to have a confirmed air ticket with their passport. So far, things are not complex.
However, it can turn into a nightmare if an individual tests Covid-19 positive in Bangladesh.
A rocky beginning
Prior to leaving Bangladesh for Indonesia, I had first-hand experience with this kind of frustration. I was to depart from Dhaka on January 6 via Malaysian Airlines. Everything was all set. I was already given my Pfizer-BioNTech booster dose before my flight. Apparently, I was in great health. There were no symptoms. I provided my sample for the Covid-19 test to Praava Health. I picked private services, because state-owned ones often take a long time compared to the private sector as a whole.
The test result came back positive on the day I was scheduled to fly. It was shocking, because I had been fully vaccinated with the third dose and didn't have any symptoms. So, I wanted to take another test.
Nevertheless, our aviation authorities' rules and regulations are ridiculous. If a traveller tests Covid-19 positive, the same traveller is not allowed to test at any other private centre for the purpose of going abroad, and is also barred from travelling abroad for at least 10 or 14 days from the date of testing positive.
Lack of clarity
But this is not even clearly communicated by the concerned authorities. I looked at the website of the Department of Aviation, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), and other institutions, but no exact information has been provided online or on any other accessible medium. Praava Health just told me to follow government regulations, and I wouldn't be able to test at a private centre for travelling, even if I were not actually Covid-19 positive.
I tried to communicate via the telephone lines of government institutes and private centres to find out what the rules and regulations really were. How many days would I be prohibited from travelling to a foreign country?
The government hotline only provides automated answers. My questions were not answered.
This was a loss of time and money. Also, the other private institutes in the capital, LabAid and Popular, could not give me the information I needed. Instead, the attendee's conduct at Popular was terrible, even by private centre standards.
I could imagine the kinds of horrendous conditions our migrant workers are in because of a lack of information from government agencies and terrible customer service. Such necessary information is not provided on concerned websites, Facebook pages, or even the newspapers. I see our decision-makers and administrators are highly perceptible in the digital media. A question arises: Why can't they make simple information available everywhere, just like their digital visibility?
Bending the rules
I did a lot of research. I invested a tremendous amount of time on my own to collect information. And yet, I couldn't find it. Somewhere along the line, a dalal (middleman) approached me on the phone. If I were to give them Tk10,000, they would remove the positive RT-PCR test report from the DGHS website, and replace it with a negative report. This may be done at the Army Stadium Test Facility. I refused right away, because I was well aware of these fraudulent RT-PCR certificates beforehand.
Such kinds of corruption occur on a regular basis, because we do not have adequate government testing centres for travellers. With the limited resources, necessary information is ostensively unavailable. I later learned that the centre located in Army Stadium is the only government centre for Covid-19 testing for travellers as commoners at the capital. Others, like CMH Dhaka, Sarkari Kormokorta-Kormochari Hospital, etc, are for a specific group of individuals.
Imagine that an individual tested positive for Covid-19 14 days ago. Accountability is nowhere to be found among the institutions.
How can an individual get to the state-owned Army Stadium Covid-19 facility for a test even if the individual does not know his/her Covid-19 status? This will render everything vulnerable to himself/herself and others.
A common problem
Interestingly, due to not having the required information, I made a post to ask about regulations and solutions on a few Facebook groups related to travelling abroad and information-seeking communities. But I ended up being asked the same question by many students and migrant workers who also wanted to go abroad as I did. They shared their frustrations on the same.
The whole situation has been traumatizing for my family and me. I had to come to Indonesia for my studies at the earliest. Let us look at another angle. Our low-skilled migrant workers are not highly educated and technologically advanced. They are the unsung heroes of our economy. By the same token, they must suffer poorly. In many cases, they lose the validity of the visa.
I had substantial doubts about the first report of Prava as a false negative. But I am not permitted to challenge their report or even have another test done to travel. I cite what is written in the report by the private centres, including mine.
While the centres follow leading international standards in testing, unfortunately, like any diagnostic test, there is a chance that someone will have the virus but will test negative (false negative), or does not have the virus and will test positive (false positive). False-positive test results are more likely when prevalence is moderate to low.
Within seven days of my first positive Covid-19 report from the private centre, I carried out four tests. Every time, the results were negative. However, as per the regulations, the person is not allowed to travel within 14 days, and the government or private centres will not test the person under the foreign travelling category.
Lastly, I underwent more than four tests at Abdur Rahim Medical College in Dinajpur, and all test results said negative. I finally made it to Indonesia. I shall share Malaysian Airlines' discrimination on other occasions. However, the staff and system at Dinajpur Medical College are excellent, amicable, and honest except for an official, whom I met at a counter. I spoke with some of them. They said they always want to give the best service, but people don't come there to test for travel purposes -- because people don't know this government hospital in North Bengal has fast-track facilities.
This is more or less the situation in the country. In fact, they asked me to share information on these testing facilities. On the other hand, while sharing my Covid-19 test, the responsible lab there explained to me that false negatives may occur if the sample contaminates a person's specimen. It has been on my mind all along. As a result, a person should deserve the flexibility to travel and test a traveller even once they have received a positive test.
We live in a digital era; the authorities concerned should make all the information available to their population. Consequently, there should not be much work to disseminate information and instructions to make our commoners' lives easier.
I currently live in Indonesia. Information is available and accessible to everyone. In addition, there are no such regulations like in Bangladesh that do not allow you to travel abroad within 14 days if you test positive for Covid-19. Here, if a person is Covid positive today, they can retake the test tomorrow and travel abroad the next day with a negative result.
Competent authorities should re-examine this insipid policy.
In the past, we have witnessed many incidents where students, skilled and unskilled workers, have lost their opportunities and visas for such absurd regulations, mismanagement, and misappropriation. The state administration and its officials should bring to the public all that everyone is accountable for, including him or herself. Best practices should be adopted through research and feasibility assessment.
As commoners, where do we go for any solutions? Wherever we do things and abide by the laws, still, we are sabotaged by either a private consortium or a state system.
Md Talebur Islam is currently a communications professional, Researcher, and International Fellow in International Relations at Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia. He can be reached by taleburislamrupom@gmail.com.