48 Bangladeshis brought back from Myanmar

Forty eight more Bangladeshi trafficking victims, who were rescued by the Myanmar authorities from the Bay of Bengal, returned home from the neighbouring country yesterday.

The fortune seekers were brought back to the country through Ghumdhum border along Bandarban's Naikhanchhari upazila around 2:00pm following a flag meeting between Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and the Immigration Department of Myanmar's Maungdaw.

Cox's Bazar 17 BGB Battalion Commanding Officer Lt Col Imran Ullah Sarker led the Bangladesh side, while Sue Nayent, deputy director of the Immigration Department, led the Myanmar side.

With the 48, some 777 Bangladeshi trafficking victims have been repatriated from Myanmar in four phases since June 8.

Of the victims, 18 are from Cox's Bazar, 11 from Jessore, four from Tangail, three each from Sirajganj and Bogra, two each from Kushtia and Narayanganj, one each from Khulna, Naogaon, Noakhali, Kishoreganj and Gopalganj, said Asif Munier, national programme officer of International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The returnees were handed over to Cox's Bazar police. Police sent them to a temporary camp set up at the Cox's Bazar Cultural Centre for interrogation, said Shyamal Kumar Nath, superintendent of police in Cox's Bazar.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh foreign ministry in a press release yesterday thanked the Myanmar government, IOM and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for their cooperation during the repatriation process.

Myanmar's navy on May 21 and 29 rescued 208 and 727 fortune seekers from their territorial waters and claimed that all of them were from Bangladesh.

But the Bangladesh government indentified 781 as its nationals.