Voyage of horror
'They starved us, threw the dead overboard,' says trafficking victim
Death, hunger and torture were all part of Bangladesh's Mohammad Rashid's arduous sea journey from Teknaf to Malaysia.
Rashid, 26, was seeking work to support his family when a man offered him passage for a pittance.
With high hopes, he made the treacherous voyage with over 400 other men in a boat in the hope of finding work on foreign shores – but ended up half-starved and thousands of Malaysian Ringgit poorer.
He was lucky. Some of those who made the trip with him died of sickness and starvation, and their bodies were tossed overboard.
"By boat, we all went to the Myanmar border. There, we were loaded into a larger ship and taken to Thailand. From there, we crossed the border into Kedah."
From Kedah, he took a bus to Kuala Lumpur, where a friend picked him up. By then, he was incredibly sick and weak.
"I couldn't work because I was so weak. It took me two months to recover, with my friend looking after me. On the boat, we didn't have enough food or even enough water. It was cramped and dirty."
Teknaf, nicknamed 'Malaysia airport', sees thousands of Bangladeshis make the journey to Malaysia, with vessels leaving daily.
"Throughout the whole journey I was repeatedly asked for money. My agent beat and threatened me until I paid nearly RM14,000 [Tk 3.35 lakh] in total." Rashid, who didn't even bring his passport with him, told The Star.