NEW DELHI - Bangladeshi authorities have arrested the owner of a hospital who they said had sold migrant workers thousands of certificates showing a negative result on coronavirus tests, when in fact many tests were never performed.
Many Bangladeshi workers have recently flown to Italy, where they said that employers required such certificates before allowing them to go back to work. Quader, the minister, has said that different criminal syndicates were operating across Bangladesh, luring migrant workers with virus-free certificates and, in turn, endangering many lives. Bangladeshi authorities said that the Regent Hospital, run by Shahed, had issued more than 10,000 certificates and that most of them were fake, backed by no actual coronavirus test.
Last week, Italy sent back 168 Bangladeshis who had arrived at airports in Rome and Milan, Italy's health ministry confirmed.