Bangladesh launches lounge for millions of migrants at Dhaka airport

Dhaka: The Bangladeshi government has launched a special lounge for the country's millions of migrant workers at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in the capital, Dhaka.

Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus inaugurated the lounge on Monday, terming migrant workers "nation builders." He expressed his hope that the lounge would make their travel easy, reports Xinhua news agency.

The lounge, the first of its kind at the airport, will offer Bangladeshi migrant workers some space to rest and have subsidised food for refreshments.

More than 14 million Bangladeshis have reportedly gone abroad with jobs since 1976. Bangladesh mainly sends workers to Gulf states and Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia and Singapore, to bolster the inflow of remittances.

Remittances, one of the key sources of foreign exchange for the nation, totalled nearly $9 billion in the July-October period, central bank data showed.