THE UNRESOLVED TRAGEDY

Myanmar's navy discovers over a hundred migrants stranded for weeks on a southern island. AFP file photo

We can see deep economic contrast in the Bangladeshi society. A part of our people live in ultimate luxury, on the other hand, a large part have to leave their homeland to earn a living elsewhere. The recent incidents of human trafficking victims from Bangladesh have broken all the previous records of humanitarian disasters in this country.  

Risking their lives, leaving all their property and families behind, these poor people have taken the deadly sea route to go to foreign lands like Malaysia and Thailand. Hopelessly stricken by poverty, joblessness and unemployment, they have become easy preys of highly organised human trafficking rackets active throughout the country. At first, they targeted their victims, counselled them for months, giving the false hope of better work and livelihood in foreign countries and thus, lured them to travel by sea. After reaching there, all of them were detained in the jungle camps, told to pay high ransom to enter the promised land. If failed, they were killed instantly by the traffickers.  

Photo: AFP

Photo: AFP

After the abolition of slavery in the late 18th century, we have not seen such brutality in the recent history. Reports of IOM (International Organisation for Migration) say that more than one thousand trafficking victims from Bangladesh have been rescued whereas many more are still drifting at sea. However, none of them have been rescued by the Bangladesh government. Men, Women and children are dying helplessly from drowning, hunger and exposure to different kinds of diseases. 

However, many questions regarding this calculated brutality still remain unanswered. Seeing the organised activity of trafficking rackets anyone can realise that their heinous activities have been going on for several years. Then, why could the government administration and law enforcing agencies not detect these criminals before? The trafficked victims were transported to Malaysia mostly by small engine boats or slow wooden fishing trawlers. Why did our coast guards completely fail to capture any of these boats laden with illegal migrants? When many countries including the USA, Philippines and Gambia have come forward offering shelter to these helpless victims, why did our government not take any step to bring back its own people?

These are the issues that our government must explain besides taking immediate step to bring back our countrymen. How can we say that these human trafficking victims who wanted to give their families a better future by working in foreign countries have tainted our country's image when a large portion of our country's foreign currency reserve comes from remittance? The fact is that our silence and indifference regarding these victims of human trafficking have tainted our country's image globally.

The writer is a third year student of Department of Islamic Studies, University of Dhaka.