Lured into risky sea trip
Most of them were enticed by traffickers of landing lucrative jobs in Malaysia, while a few were kidnapped by thugs. They endured an ordeal for over a week before being rescued by Navy men.
The 576 fortune seekers from Bangladesh and Myanmar were rescued on Monday from a cargo vessel near the Saint Martin's island of the Bay of Bengal while being trafficked to the Southeast Asian country.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. They along with five traffickers and 11 crew members of the vessel were taken to the Navy's Ready Response Berth at Patenga last evening. Among the rescued are 510 male, 33 female and 33 children.
One of the victims is 20-year-old Humayun Kabir of Manirampur in Jessore. He passed Higher Secondary Certificate exams in 2012.
Talking to The Daily Star, he said one Milan Hossain, who has been in Malaysia for 10 years, of his village assured him over the phone of an attractive job there.
Being enticed, Kabir along with four other men, mostly farmers, started for Chittagong on November 2. The traffickers kept them in a mess at Bahaddar Hat in the port city for three days before taking them to Cox's Bazar where they stayed in a hotel for a day.
“Then they [traffickers] took us to a hill in Himchhari and detained us there. They took away our mobile phones and other valuables,” said Kabir.
The five were supposed to give the traffickers Tk 2 lakh each after reaching Malaysia safely. Their guardians would send the money abroad.
“One early morning, about a week ago, they took us near the sea and got us on a small boat. Later, we were shifted to a small fishing trawler where 20-25 people were already aboard. As the trawler was very small, we had to sit all the time and couldn't lie down,” he mentioned.
The traffickers beat them up with iron rods if they tried to complain about anything. They had been on the trawler for five to six days and were given only some rice and two chilies twice a day to eat.
“My father had warned me not to go with the traffickers, but I didn't listen to him. Finally, I've got my reward by being treated inhumanely,” he lamented.
Aged 17, Imtiaz Uddin Sheith was tempted by traffickers' offer of an attractive foreign job. He left his village Baghapara in Jessore on November 8. Sonia, wife of a Malaysia expatriate in the village, offered him the job.
But soon he realised that he has been deceived.
Hailing from Merula of Mongdu in Myanmar, Ayesha Akhter, 26, and her two daughters, aged 4 and one and a half years, are among the cheated.
“My husband Wazi Uddin is an expatriate in Malaysia. He told me to go there with my two daughters,” she told The Daily Star.
With the help of middlemen, they got on a small boat last week. The following day, the three boarded a trawler in the mid sea.
“I saw the traffickers torturing the males, but the females were spared of,” she told this newspaper.
Ismail, 20, of Kurushkul in Cox's Bazar, along with two of his friends was going to visit his elder sister in Teknaf seven days ago. On the way, the three was kidnapped by a group of smugglers from Hnila area, some 15 kilometres off Teknaf.
They were kept confined to a hole in a hill at night. The next morning, they were taken to the sea by a small boat. The kidnappers took away their cell-phone sets and all belongings.
The Navy last night handed over 576 fortune seekers, 11 crews and five traffickers and manpower brokers to police.
Contacted, Kazi Shahabuddin, officer-in-charge of Patenga Police Station, said they will free the Bangladeshis after verifying their identities. The Myanmar nationals will be sued for illegal entry into Bangladesh. The traffickers and brokers will be sued under trafficking act.
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