No hope of release soon
The Bangladeshi nationals recently rescued from a jungle in Thailand will have to languish in a detention centre there for weeks or even months, before they can come home.
Of the 171 people rescued by Thai authorities in three phases, at least 118 are Bangladeshis, said Bangladesh Embassy officials in Thailand, quoting the victims.
They were all confined by human traffickers in a rubber plantation.
Verification of the Bangladesh nationals will take weeks, officials said.
“The Thai authorities will take one to two weeks to complete the screening of all the detainees, including the Bangladeshis. After their verification of the self-proclaimed Bangladeshis, we will start our own verification,” said Muhammad Ehteshamul Haque, counsellor at the embassy.
Their repatriation will begin after the verification of their nationalities by Bangladesh police, but officials could not give any time for the repatriation.
Their rescue exposes a modern-day slave trade that has taken a firm root in Bangladesh. Beaten, abused and left with no food, these wretched men tell a horrific tale of how they were forced to work in the plantation in most hazardous conditions.
Thailand is increasingly becoming infamous for human trafficking. In 2009, the Thai Navy was found to be towing boats packed with Rohingyas out to the sea, and leaving them to drift. Hundreds are believed to have died.
More recently, the Thai police and military personnel have been accused of selling Rohingyas who washed up on Thailand's shores to human traffickers.
The Bangladesh Embassy officials in Thailand said this year alone some 700 Bangladeshi victims of human trafficking were rescued in that country.
“Of them, 300 have already been repatriated. The rest are in the process of repatriation,” Ehteshamul told The Daily Star by phone on Saturday.
Yesterday, talking about those rescued recently, he said they would be considered victims of human trafficking and sent back home.
The first group of 37 who were forcibly kept in the jungle was found last month. Then, on 11 October, another group of 53 was tracked down, the BBC says.
The last group, of 81, was surrounded in a forest camp near the road on 13 October. They had been driven by their guards from one camp to another in an attempt to evade the authorities.
Two of the guards have now been detained.
Meanwhile, acting foreign secretary Mustafa Kamal said Dhaka sought a consular access to the trafficked Bangladeshis.
“We hope we'll get it [the access] soon, as we've very good relations with Thailand,” he told a press conference.
“Our embassy is in touch with the Thai government,” he added.
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