Rab arrests 2 including recruiting agency owner

Rapid Action Battalion yesterday arrested two people including a recruiting agency owner from Dhaka's Fakirapool area in connection with the death of Umme Kulsum, who was sent to Saudi Arabia as a house help and tortured to death there.

The arrestees are Mokbul Hossain, owner of MH Trader International; and his associate Parvez, said Additional Superintendent of Police Bina Rani Das, of Rab-3. They were arrested during a drive at their office.

The recruiting agency last year sent Kulsum, a 14-year-girl from Brahmanbaria, to Saudia Arabia as house help, said Das.

"Even though the minimum legal age for a female migrant worker [in Saudi Arabia] has to be 25, the agency hid her age and sent her to work abroad," she said.

Kulsum was tortured by her employer there and subsequently died at a hospital on August 9 this year. Her body was brought back home on September 12.

"We will charge the agency with human trafficking, for knowingly sending a minor to be exploited," said ASP Das. "We're also investigating the agency to see how many others they trafficked."

As the drive went on, Manpower Recruiting Agencies Oikko Parishad convener Tipu Sultan staged a protest outside the agency's Fakirapool office. "We can't be culpable for crimes of employers. We want the law repealed," he said.