No trace of 45 people trafficked from Jhenidah of Bangladesh

At least 44 people have been missing in Jhenidah since mid-February after they, lured by traffickers, left homes to seek fortune in Malaysia and Thailand.

Fifteen of them are from Jhenidah Sadar upazila, 14 from Kaliganj, 10 from Harinakundu and the rest from Shailakupa, according to victims' families and police.

Traffickers lure youths into taking a voyage across the Bay of Bengal for landing jobs abroad, said an official of an intelligence agency.

“Manpower brokers are active in villages. The unemployed and poor youths are the main targets for them,” he told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.

The brokers promise them jobs for “minimal” expenses and the victims walk straight into the traffickers' trap. The victims are then held captives and their relatives are made to pay ransoms, added the official.

Aged about 29, Feroz Kha of Mallikpur village in Kaliganj left home for Malaysia in late February. Four others from the village were also with him.

Around a month later, he phoned his mother Sufia Begum from Chittagong and started crying. He asked her to send money for him to save his life.

Sufia said they paid Delwar, a local manpower broker, Tk 15,000 to send Feroz to Malaysia. “I thought Feroz had reached Malaysia in the meantime. But the brokers abducted him and demanded ransom for his release.”

“When I went back to Delwar, he told me that those who had paid him Tk1 lakh have reached Malaysia. He assured me that my son would reach there within a week if I paid him the amount,” added the 50-year-old.

Sufia then mortgaged her two bigha land for Tk 2 lakh and paid Tk 1 lakh to Delwar. Families of four other youths also paid the broker Tk 1 lakh each. Within days, Delwar went into hiding.

One of the five youths, Akkas Ali on May 17 called his son Nasim Hossain and asked him to put Feroz's mother on the phone.

Akkas told Sufia that he was in Thailand, but Feroz and three others have been missing.

“I don't know whether my son has reached Malaysia or died somewhere on the way there,” said a worried Sufia.

Feroz's wife Rina Khatun urged the government to help her husband back home. “My husband was a day labourer. I don't know how I would support my two minor sons,” she said.

Rafi Uddin's son Imadul Islam, 22, is one of the four missing youths of Mallikpur village.

“I had only 10 decimal land. I sold it for my son, but now I don't know whether my son is alive or not,” said Rafi Uddin.

Tripti Khatun, wife of Sabur Hossain in Brahimpur village of Shailakupa upazila, said her husband left for Chittagong in the last week of March.

Like many other youths, he wanted to go to Malaysia by sea. But Kamrul, who had accompanied Sabur on the journey, recently phoned from Malaysia and informed her that Sabur was missing.

Gopinath Kanjilal, assistant superintended of police in Jhenidah, said four cases were filed with different police stations in the district from January to May 19 against 70 people for trafficking.

Law enforcers have so far arrested six of the accused, including Khairul Islam and Emdad Hossain of Jhenidah Sadar upazila. The six are now behind bars.