Broadcaster NTV later said that the plane’s two pilots were critically injured and receiving treatment at the hospital. It said the plane attempted to land in heavy tail-winds, adding that the two previous flights had held off landing due to wind.


Footage showed the plane’s fuselage, as well as a section of it near the tail, had broken off. Passengers were being led out as the plane lay on a patch of grass next to the runway. Dozens of emergency response personnel were taking passengers out of the plane and carrying them away on stretchers.

Earlier footage showed part of the exterior of the plane had caught on fire, which state media said was put out by several firefighters at the scene.

Turkish Airlines said it canceled all its flight in and out of Sabiha Gokcen on Wednesday.

A Pegasus Airlines plane flying into Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport from Izmir skidded off the runway after landing and crashed on Wednesday, injuring 52 people, Turkish officials and the airline said.

The plane split into three pieces after what Transport Minister Cahit Turhan called a rough landing, adding that there were no fatalities. He said flights waiting to land in Sabiha Gokcen were diverted to Istanbul Airport.

A spokeswoman for Pegasus confirmed the crash but did not provide further details. In a statement, Pegasus later said its plane had gone off the runaway after landing and that passengers were being evacuated.

Istanbul Governor Ali Yerlikaya said the plane was carrying 171 passengers and six crew members from the western province of Izmir. He added emergency response teams had taken 52 people to hospital.

According to the TIB report, dishonest foreign nationals resorted to illegal channel such as hundi traders while sending remittance away from Bangladesh.

The foreign employees are mostly from India, China, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Turkey, Norway and Nigeria.

Most of them are employed in garments, textiles, buying houses, multi-national companies, power plants, telecom companies, information technologies, leather factories, healthcare, hotels, restaurants, logistics, and energy companies.

Lack of skilled industry workers at home and the emergence of technology-based, automatic and heavy equipment, are among the reasons why employers have to rely on foreigners, the report observed.

In the readymade garment sector, there is a shortage of Bangladeshis eligible to be in top management positions. Employers also have to rely on foreigners when they look for someone with the communications skills required for buyer management, the report says.

Foreigners without work permit first arrived in Bangladesh on tourist visa and took the advantage of a three-month stay permit. By that time, they got recruited, bypassing the legal procedure.

When their visa was about to be expired, they returned to their countries, applied for a new tourist visa for three months and then came back to Bangladesh again to continue their jobs, it said.

Many of the foreign nationals working in Bangladesh conceal their actual earnings to evade tax, which is 30 percent of their income. They send their earnings overseas through money launderers.

The report, Employment of Foreigners in Bangladesh: Challenge of Good Governance and Way to Overcome, was launched yesterday by TIB at a press conference at its office in the capital’s Dhanmondi.

The government authorities concerned and many of the recruiters of foreign employees are not following the laws and regulations, TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman told the event.

The government organisations are failing to prevent this, he added.

There is a need to employ skilled foreign nationals in Bangladesh, but the recruitment has to be transparent. The country will be able to reap the benefit sustainably that way, he added.

The Bangladesh chapter of Berlin-based global graft watchdog did the research on only those foreigners who entered Bangladesh through legal means.

Foreign diplomats, pastors, researchers, students, officials of the United Nations, and international development organisations, were excluded from the survey conducted from April, 2018-December, 2019.

An estimated $3.1 billion or about Tk26,400 crore is laundered away from Bangladesh each year by foreigners employed in the country, says a Transparency International Bangladesh report.

Due to foreign nationals’ tax evasion, the government is being deprived of about $1.35 billion or Tk12,000 crore in revenues annually, the TIB report says.

Over 2.5 lakh foreigners from at least 44 countries are employed in more than 20 sectors in Bangladesh, it adds.

Some 1.6 lakh of the foreigners are working without permits after coming to Bangladesh on tourist visa. Only 90,000 foreigners are working in Bangladesh following due procedure, it adds.

The average income of foreign workers in Bangladesh is $1,500 a month, it says.