9 local rings in league with int’l traffickers
Transnational human traffickers used the United Arab Emirates as a major transit point to send Bangladeshi job-seekers to Libya via Amman, according to officials of the Detective Branch of police.
Once the migrants reach Libya, the traffickers send them to Europe via Malta using the Mediterranean Sea.
Law enforcers claim to have traced nine local syndicates who were working closely with international traffickers.
"These syndicate members work individually in different districts, but we are suspecting they are all linked with each other," a DB high official told The Daily Star yesterday.
Of the syndicates, four are active in Netrakona, Kishoreganj, Narsingdi and Brahmanbaria districts, three in Madaripur, Gopalganj and Shariatpur, one in Chattogram and one in Magura, said the official.
DB claimed to have found a ringleader after arresting a syndicate member from the capital's Kamalapur area on Saturday night.
During primary interrogation, the arrestee, Sujon Mia, 26, admitted to sending around 16 people to Libya over the last two years, said Shahadat Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of DB, to this newspaper.
DB arrested Sujon while investigating a human trafficking case filed with Tejgaon Police Station after 26 Bangladeshis were kidnapped and killed in Libya on May 28.
According to the First Information Report, Sujon and his syndicate members sent three people -- Esar Uddin, 25, Md Bijoy, 22, and Md Sajal, 26 -- to Libya on December 3 last year. But last month, Esar called his wife Sumaiya over cell phone and said the traffickers have confined him to a torture cell and would kill him if she did not send Tk 10 lakh to them.
The Daily Star managed to get some audio recordings from the victim's family, in which Esar was crying and shouting for help. He was saying, "Please send Tk 10 lakh, they broke both my hands and are electrocuting me."
Sumaiya's brother Mohammad Ali said they registered a complaint with the police as they were unable to contact Esar for a week after the killing took place.
Of the three who went to Libya through Sujon, only Sajal is now undergoing treatment in hospital while Bijoy and Esar remain missing, said ADC Shahadat.
"We are now trying to trace the victims using the information we got from Sujon," he added.
Regarding the trafficking system, ADC Shahadat said that after interrogating Sujon, they have learnt that the syndicate members first send migrants to UAE, where a Bangladeshi person named Afrin Ahmed, wearing a blue T-shirt, receives them.
"Afrin then sends the migrants to Amman, where another person [of unknown identity] wearing a green T-shirt receives them and sends them to Libya, where three Bangladeshis -- Sanjib, Manik and Jafor -- wearing black and white T-shirts receive them," he said.
Finally, the traffickers send the migrants to Europe by boat via Malta, the ADC said, adding that Sujon himself had gone to Libya using this route in 2017. He joined the trafficking syndicates after coming back to Bangladesh.
Primarily, these traffickers charge Tk 4.60 lakh to send people to Libya but take an additional Tk three to four lakh before sending them to Europe, according to the official.
The Bangladeshis who receive these migrants in Libya hand them over to local gangs, who keep them in torture cells for money. They do not release the migrants until their demands are met, the official added.
Contacted, Golam Mostofa Rashel, deputy commissioner (west) of DB police, told The Daily Star that they have traced some of the syndicates while investigating.
Rashel refused to disclose further details of these syndicates as it may alert them. "We are conducting drives and are hopeful to arrest all the absconding members soon," he added.
13 ARRESTED
Different units of police have arrested around 13 people in connection with 22 cases filed across the country till yesterday, regarding the killing of the 26 Bangladeshis, according to a statement issued by the Police Headquarters.
Under the strict guidelines of the Inspector General of Police Benazir Ahmed, all police units, including Rapid Action Battalion, Criminal Investigation Department, Police Bureau of Investigation and Dhaka Metropolitan Police, started drives to arrest those responsible for the trafficking. The drives are still underway, reads the PHQ statement.
Earlier, in an emergency video conference with all police unit chiefs and high officials on June 1, the IGP said, "The way our countrymen were brutally killed is totally unacceptable. Bangladesh is no longer in a position in which it's people should die in such a manner.
"Those who have deceived the citizens of the country, taken them abroad, and are responsible for their miserable deaths will not be spared. Every one of these syndicates will be found and will face capital punishment in line with the law so that no one dares to play with life and lead any Bangladeshi to their death."
It is to be noted that Bangladeshis who go abroad this way usually travel to India or other countries first by using valid travel documents like passports and relevant visas. In all these cases, they left Bangladesh after showing those documents, reads the PHQ statement.
Then, in collaboration with brokers and traffickers, they migrate to the Middle East or Libya from India or other countries, it added.
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