HC wants update on action against traffickers

The High Court yesterday wanted to know the actions taken against travel agencies and human traffickers responsible for the death of 37 Bangladeshis in the Mediterranean Sea.

The court asked the Deputy Attorney General ABM Abdullah-Al-Mahmud Bashar to provide the information after consulting with the authorities concerned of the government within the next seven days.

The bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader passed the order during hearing a writ petition filed in this regard.

The court also kept the petition stand-over (pending for hearing) for a week. It set next Monday for further hearing.

Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Emdadul Haque filed the writ petition on June 16 seeking a directive on the government to take action against the travel agencies and human traffickers responsible for the death of 37 Bangladeshis in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Bangladeshi nationals, most of whom were from Sylhet and Noakhali, reportedly died after their boat capsized in the sea -- on the way to Italy from Libya -- on May 9.

The lawyer in the writ petition prayed to the court to order the travel agencies, which illegally sent the Bangladeshi nationals, to compensate  each victim’s family Tk 1 crore.

He also urged the HC to direct the government to form a high-powered committee in order to probe the incidents of illegal human trafficking and to identify the travel agencies and human traffickers responsible for such incidents.

The lawyer in the petition also requested the HC to ask the government to incorporate a provision of death sentence in the ‘Manab Pachar Protirodh O Daman Ain’ (Human Trafficking Prevention and Suppression Act) 2012 for the persons responsible for the incidents of human trafficking.

Assistant Attorney General M Saiful Islam also represented the government.