In pursuit of better life, they go off the rails

To change their fortunes, three Bangladeshis went abroad, after handing over all their savings to a transnational trafficking syndicate.

But luck was not on their side. They were dragged back home and put behind bars, after they stole money in Iraq.

Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit arrested the three -- Md Sujon Uddin (23) and his partnet Md Sohrab (31) on Saturday and Sujon's elder brother Md Sumon (28) yesterday -- from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport  in the capital after they were deported.

An Iraqi national filed a complaint with the Bangladesh embassy in Iraq on September 28, Tohidul Islam, additional deputy commissioner of CTTC, told The Daily Star yesterday.

According to the investigators, the two siblings -- Sujon and Sumon -- left for Iraq in April this year, after making a contract with a trafficking syndicate for Tk 6 lakh.

They first went to Dubai on a visiting visa and stayed there for 20 days, before entering Iran. They then entered Iraq illegally, said CTTC officials, citing the investigation findings.

In Iraq, they met Sohrab and started working together in a diagnostic centre.

Their monthly salary was equivalent to USD 400.

Sohrab had been staying in Iraq since 2018.

Because they had no work permit or valid documents in Iraq and their employer confiscated their passports, these migrants could not go out of the country.

The employer would often torture them and not pay their salaries regularly, claimed the arrestees during primary interrogation.

Desperate, the three decided to make an illegal journey to Italy for a better future.

As per the plan, they broke into their employer Dr Ali Ahmmed's office to get the passports.

During that time, they also looted money worth around USD 1.43 lakh and started their journey to Italy.

For the journey, they communicated with another trafficking syndicate in Iraq and paid it an amount equivalent to around USD 17,000.

Mid-journey, when they were trying to go to Turkey's Istanbul from Iraq by road, the three were detained by the Turkish police at a check-post.

The Turkish police then arrested the group and deported them on Saturday, after a 17-day stay in jail there, according to the CTTC officials.

After CTTC made the arrests, a case was filed with Airport Police Station, and the three were sent to jail.

Meanwhile, Sohrab gave a confessional statement to a Dhaka court on Sunday, said the investigators

As the three had already lost their savings to go abroad, they decided to steal the money to go to Italy, said police, quoting the arrestees.

ADC Tohidul said before leaving Iraq, the group gave the looted money to a friend, who was supposed to send it to their families back in Bangladesh through hundi.

But the friend, Al-Amin, was yet to send the money, and his cell phone was found switched off, he said.

Police are now trying to recover the money by tracing Al-Amin's location.

ADC Tohidul said two Bangladeshis run both trafficking syndicates.

One Reaz from Noakhali leads a syndicate and sends people to Iraq illegally after acquiring visiting visas for Dubai, said the official.

ADC Tohidul said one Sajib from Brahmanbaria, along with Iraqis, runs the syndicate in Iraq.

"We are now investigating these syndicates' activities to know how many migrants they have trafficked abrd," he said.

Tohidul further said Bangladeshi members of the syndicates are hiding somewhere in the country. "We are conducting a drive to arrest them."