Packed into trawler unconscious
Remembers one of 37 trafficking victims returned by Myanmar; another says brokers realised with death threats Tk 50,000 from father; police being alerted of possible suspects; cases to be filed
One of the 37 trafficking victims Myanmar handed over to Border Guard Bangladesh on Friday said human traffickers rubbed a balm type substance in his nasal passage before he became unconscious only to later discover himself on a trawler floating in the Bay of Bengal.
Hawking cloths for a living in Dhaka, Sujan Mian, 26, was offered by one Abdul Khaleque of his Kishoreganj village a few months back a low cost trip to Malaysia where he was assured there would be jobs paying as much as Tk 1 lakh per month.
Khaleque took him from his Kishoreganj village to Narsingdi where he boarded a microbus with some 10 others and the balm was applied, Sujan told The Daily Star yesterday before being released from a camp in Cox's Bazar Cultural Centre along with 32 others following interrogations.
Another victim, Arifur Rahman, 22, of Bogra said two brokers, Julfikar and Saker, of the district took him to Cox's Bazar's Teknaf with similar promises and handed him over to another broker, Abdul Hamid.
Hamid confined him to a house, realised Tk 50,000 from his father by threatening to kill him with a firearm and then put him in a trawler which drifted at sea for over two months.
The remaining four, being adolescents, were handed over to Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, the Cox's Bazar unit secretary of which, Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal, said their volunteers would take them back home.
The four are Md Shamim, 16, of Sirajganj; Afai Mia, 15, of Kishoreganj; Mazid Ullah, 17, of Habiganj; and Sagar Ali, 15, of Bogra.
Cox's Bazar Additional Superintendent of Police Tofael Ahmed said identities of the human traffickers concerned had been provided to police in seven districts.
Police will file cases in the seven -- Sirajganj, Madaripur, Sunamganj, Kishoreganj, Habiganj, Jamalpur and Bogra.
Following the discovery of mass graves in Thailand, some 5,000 victims, Rohingyas facing persecution in Myanmar and Bangladeshis seeking jobs, have been rescued in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar since late April.
The Myanmar navy rescued 935 victims from the Bay of Bengal on May 21 and 29. Myanmar on June 8 repatriated 150 victims, three of whom the Bangladesh authorities confirmed as Rohingyas.