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Detainees give horrifying accounts of trafficking


Published : 09 Jul 2020 09:55 PM | Updated : 01 Sep 2020 02:14 PM

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on Wednesday evening arrested three top leaders of an active international human trafficking gang operating from the capital from different parts of the city, all of whom opened up about the ins and outs of how they were doing all these while in detention.

Sujoy Sarker, Assistant Director, Legal and Media wing of RAB, confirmed the matter to this correspondent.
The arrested were identified as Md Jamal Uddin alias Shohag (34), Md Kamal Hossain (39) and Md Jamal Hossain (37).

Of late, eleven Bangladeshis were forced to return to the country from Vietnam, all of whom were victims of human trafficking. After getting complaints from the victims, RAB started investigating it.

During the primary interrogation, RAB came to know that another twenty seven Bangladeshis are trapped in Vietnam.
They also found out that Mash Carriers Services, JK Overseas Ltd, Advent Overseas Ltd, M/S Sandhani Overseas Ltd, Al Noman Human Resources Ltd and local brokers, namely Abdul Jabbar, Golam Azam Sumon, Kolpona Akter, Azmir Hossain, Milon, Shovon and Atique, were involved in human trafficking to Vietnam.

Later, acting on a tip-off, a team of RAB-3 raided different parts of the city and arrested the human traffickers on Wednesday evening. RAB also seized 254 passports from their possessions.

During the primary interrogation, the arrested human traffickers disclosed that they visited Vietnam several times and held meeting with their Vietnamese cohorts.

Foreign members of the gangs told them that there was a huge demand of Bangladeshi workers in Vietnam. They could work there after entering the country with ‘entrepreneur visa’.

As part of the plan, the local agencies lure the targets with an offer of lucrative salary of around Tk. 50,000 per month in Vietnam. Then, they convince them to prepare their passports and send the information to the Vietnamese brokers.

Upon receiving necessary information, traffickers based in Vietnam send offer letters to the Bangladeshi agencies. Submitting those offer letters, entrepreneur visas are collected from the Vietnamese embassy in Dhaka.
Vietnam government normally issues this visa for the entrepreneurs to attract foreign investment there. However, traffickers also force the victims to carry the amount (2000 US dollars) necessary to get entrepreneur visa with them.

Foreign members of the gang receive these victims at the Vietnamese airport and forcibly take away their passports after taking them to their dens and holding them captive. Later, they demand ransom money from their family members in Bangladesh.

In some instances they provide some temporary works to the victims. However, they cannot do anything even after realizing the fact as their passports are never given back. Consequently, they are forced into an inhuman life there in Vietnam.

The recruiting agencies do not extend any help to the family members of the victims in such cases.
Md Nazmul Hasan, a victim hailing from Cumilla district, died in March. After getting the tragic news of his death, his family 

members sought help from the local brokers and JK Overseas. But they did not offer any help.
There is also allegation that some agencies like Mash Carriers Services are operating in the country without any legal license.