3,000 fortune seekers from 20 districts of Bangladesh remain traceless

More than 3,000 fortune seekers from 20 districts are missing after they, lured by the promise of a job in Malaysia, left home in the past five months.

Of those missing, around 2,000 are from Cox's Bazar, the focal point for human traffickers, around 500 from Jessore, some 300 from Sirajganj, and the rest from 17 other districts, according to government offices and NGOs.

“We are conducting a survey to identify the number of people missing from different upazilas of Cox's Bazar since January. Until now, we have figured that around 800 people are missing from Ukhia, around 500 from Teknaf, 100 from Ramu and around 600 from Sadar upazila,” Abul Kashem, executive director of Help Cox's Bazar, a local NGO, told The Daily Star on Wednesday.

Earlier, only the Cox's Bazar locals used to be the victims of human trafficking, but now people from almost all districts are falling into the trap, he added.

Shamol Kumar Nath, superintendent of Cox's Bazar police, said they had heard that some people were missing but it was difficult for them to get the exact number.

Around 100 cases had been filed in the district in connection with human trafficking and over 200 people had been arrested in the last few months, sources said.

In small groups, local and Myanmarese human traffickers were active in Cox's Bazar. They gather jobseekers from remote districts.

In Jessore, most of the people who have gone missing are from Monirampur, Jhikorgachha and Sadar upazilas. The exact number of victims was unavailable but local NGOs claim over 1,000 people from the district were missing.

"We have recently arrested two top human traffickers who were involved in the crime for long. There are at least eight cases on trafficking allegations in the district," Superintendent Anisur Rahman of Jessore police told The Daily Star on Wednesday.

In Sirajganj, over 300 people from five upazilas were missing after they had left their homes to seek their fortunes abroad.

The victims' families in Sirajganj Sadar, Belkuchi, Ullapara, Shajadpur and Chowhali upazilas urged the government to rescue them.

"The human traffickers threatened me over the phone and asked for Tk 2.5 lakh for my son's release. To save my son's life, I paid sold my farmland last month and paid them. But there is no information on my son yet,” Sabed Ali, father of missing Nur Alam told The Daily Star correspondent last week.

Nur Alam had been missing since the first week of March after he left home to go to Malaysia through the sea, his family said.

Abdul Mannan of Sirajganj manpower office said they had information about 300 victims who had been smuggled out to different countries illegally by human traffickers.

In Satkhira, 27 jobseekers went missing in the last few months. Of them, 12 hailed from a village of Kolaroya upazila.

“Abba, now I am throwing away my mobile phone. I can't talk to you anymore. We are 300 in a trawler with Sattar and Arif of our village,” these were the last words of Azmol Morol to his father Sirajul Morol.

Like Sirajul, many family members do not know the whereabouts of their relatives after they left their homes.

Satkhira manpower office Assistant Director Sheikh Mustafizur Rahman told our Satkhira correspondent that they had received at least 27 letters from families of missing people.

Meanwhile, Faridpur Superintendent of Police Jamil Hasan said they had no definite number of victims but they had received information of 15 to 16 people who went missing in the district.

Besides, families of victims from Tangail, Narsingdi, Madaripur, Chuadanga, Meherpur, Chandpur, Joypurhat, Naogaon, Gaibandha, Habiganj, Patuakhali, Bogra, Munshiganj, Narayanganj, Magura and Rajbari were in the dark about the fate of their loved ones.