Server outage delays passengers at Dhaka airport

Immigration services for international passengers at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) were disrupted for around an hour on Monday after a server malfunction, forcing officials to process travellers manually and leaving hundreds of passengers waiting in long queues.

The technical problem affected immigration processing for both outbound and inbound passengers. Several flights arrived within a short period, further worsening congestion at the airport.

Passengers returning from different countries said they were forced to wait between one and one-and-a-half hours as immigration officials manually recorded travellers' details after the system went offline.

Mehedi Hasan, who arrived from China via Singapore, said the disruption reflected a longstanding problem rather than an isolated incident.

"This is not something new. We expatriate Bangladeshis regularly face such harassment at immigration. We want these difficulties to end so that all migrant workers can receive better services," he said.

Md Riyad Mostafa, a Bangladeshi student returning from Japan, said the lack of a modern processing system was the main cause of the delay.

"I have been studying in Japan for four years. There, everything is processed digitally. Here, officials had to write down passengers' information manually," he said.

"I had only a one-hour transit in China, yet all immigration and baggage checks were completed there within that time. But after arriving in Dhaka, I had to stand in the immigration queue for around one hour and 20 minutes."

He said he had expected to see noticeable improvements after spending four years abroad.

"Unfortunately, I found the situation almost unchanged. Everyone in the queue suffered considerable inconvenience," he added.

Din Islam, who arrived from Singapore, said the immigration server remained down while several international flights landed simultaneously.

"The system was down, so officials processed everything manually. It took around one to one-and-a-half hours because they had to check every passenger by hand while handling passengers from multiple flights," he said.

Contacted over the issue, Additional Superintendent of Police Naznin, the officer in charge of immigration at the airport, confirmed that the server had experienced a temporary outage.

"The server was down but is now operational again. I have just taken charge, so I do not yet know the detailed reason for the disruption. Our priority now is to clear passengers through immigration as quickly as possible," she told reporters.

Airport authorities resumed normal immigration processing after the system was restored. However, officials did not immediately disclose the cause of the technical failure or the number of passengers affected by the disruption.