Nexus of evil arrested, now follow due process

At last, the law enforcement agencies have been able to identify and arrest some of the people involved in sending workers abroad on forged documents. In this connection, the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of police hauled in five people from travel agencies, including an owner, last month, according to a report in this newspaper on December 1. It has been our firm belief—and we have expressed it often—that no one can leave the country through the normal exit routes with forged documents without the help of someone on the inside. The process involves multiple characters, as the recent arrests have exposed.

But the circuit is incomplete, since those arrested are only small cogs in the wheel that operates the illegal system. Documents cannot be forged without the help of those in the Department of Immigration and Passports. And, of course, there are the gatekeepers who have themselves turned into poachers. These are the immigrant officials at the airports who complete the obnoxious circle.

What the report reveals is nothing that has not been known by the general public, and certainly some of those who should know could not have been unaware of what was going on. But unfortunately, nothing was done to stem the outflow of illegal migrants. And the reason is not far to seek. As revealed in the report mentioned above, things in the airport were "managed" by allegedly paying Tk 30,000 to on-duty police officials for every passenger they allowed to pass with forged documents. One may dare suggest that the amount was shared with some of those who matter, so that they "hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil." Reportedly, every illegal migrant paid between Tk 250,000 and Tk 500,000.

Fortunately, there are honest officials—the majority, we would like to believe—who work with due diligence. That is why many passengers with forged or illegal documents were detected before they could leave the country. We believe that apart from a powerful syndicate involved in illegal human trafficking, there is a strong syndicate which is involved in the smuggling of gold. What gets caught from time to time is but miniscule when compared to what manages to enter the country. And that cannot happen without a strong nexus between all those involved in the immigration process. These syndicates must be identified, and those involved must face the strictest of punishments to deter others from indulging in such anti-national activities in future.