25 trafficking victims back home from Indonesia
Twenty five more Bangladeshi human trafficking victims returned home from Indonesia last night, around four months after they were rescued from the Andaman Sea.
A flight of Malaysian Airlines carrying them landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 8:00pm, Mohammad Shakil Mansoor of International Organisation for Migration (IOM) told The Daily Star.
With the 25, a total of 217 rescued Bangladeshis returned home from Indonesia since June 12, while around 400 to 500 others are still staying at shelter homes in Indonesia, he said.
The rest will be brought back home gradually after police verification. The Bangladesh foreign ministry in association with the IOM is arranging their repatriation, Shakil added.
IOM officials received the returnees at the airport. They had been at the shelter homes in Indonesia after their rescue.
The returnees hail from Narsingdi, Meherpur, Kishoreganj, Narayanganj and Cox's Bazar.
Over 500 Bangladeshis, who were rescued in the last several months from the Andaman Sea, had been brought back home from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar since June.
Since the discovery of mass graves of the migrants believed to be Rohingyas and Bangladeshis in Thai and Malaysian jungles in May, the news of several thousand Bangladeshis being missing were reported in the media.
The government, however, confirmed that it has so far rescued over 2,000 Bangladeshis in the four Southeast Asian countries. The Bangladeshis were lured with the prospect of decent jobs in Malaysia by human traffickers.
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