39 more back home from Thailand

Thirty-nine Bangladeshi trafficking victims, who had been rescued by the Thai authorities from the Andaman Sea two months ago, returned home from Bangkok yesterday.

A flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the Bangladeshis landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 8:30pm, BM Jamal Hossain, director (Welfare & MRP) at the foreign ministry, told The Daily Star.

Of the returnees, 16 hail from Sirajganj, five from Cox's Bazar, four from Chittagong, three each from Narsingdi and Madaripur, two each from Faridpur, Chuadanga and Rangamati, and one each from Pabna and Magura districts, said a press release of Bangladesh embassy in Bangkok.

They were sent back after getting confirmation of their nationality through police verification. The Bangladeshis were kept at Thai detention centres after being rescued from the sea, Jamal said.

Officials of the foreign ministry and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) received them at the airport.

The embassy has paid their repatriation cost, including airfare. It has so far repatriated a total of 1,003 Bangladeshis, who had been trafficked into Thailand since the end of 2013, said Saida Muna Tasneem, Bangladesh ambassador in Thailand.

Some 470 self-claimed Bangladeshis are now in the pipeline to be sent back from Thailand, she said, adding that the embassy had been working round-the-clock to expedite the return of all the remaining stranded Bangladesh nationals in Thailand at the shortest possible time. This would be done after verifying their nationality.