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Families unaware of Thai voyage

Story of 2 victims found to be similer

Porimol Palma
Until yesterday, Nasreen, a housewife in Shankarpur of Sathkira, was unaware that her husband has become a victim of modern-day slave trade.
The husband, Abul Kalam Azad, on September 16 left home in Kalaroa upazila saying he was going to Dhaka for work but never returned.
"My husband is a mason and he used to go to different districts every now and then [to work]," Nasreen said yesterday, adding that, she had not been able to reach him since that day.
She was shocked to find out that Azad, 35, is one of the 134 trafficking victims now staying at an immigration detention centre in Thailand.
Thai authorities rescued the victims last week after they had been confined in a Southern Thailand rubber plantation deep inside the jungle
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reportedly for days. They were beaten, abused and left with no food.
Traffickers had enticed them with the promise of well-paid jobs either in Thailand or Malaysia and picked them up from the coast of Cox's Bazar sometime in late September.
A huge trafficking network is active in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia, said Bangladesh foreign ministry officials.
So far this year, Bangladesh has identified more than 700 trafficking victims as its nationals following their rescue in Thailand.
Among the rescued, 300 were sent back home, the officials said.
Many of the 134 Bangladeshi victims told the international media that they were kidnapped to be sold to owners of fishing boats in Thailand, a claim that could not be verified immediately.
"My husband lost his father when he was just five years old and he has been working his heart out to run his family since he was merely a boy," said the28-year-old.
Nasreen said her family was passing tough days. They only have three decimals of land.
Nasreen, a mother of two, is completely at a loss now.
"We are having a crisis of food. We have only those vegetables that can be found around our home," she said.
"I don't know what would happen to us ... we have no money and my
husband is in jail."
She said three more men - Noor Ali, Billal and Sadar - from her village in Satkhira, one of the most disaster-prone districts of the country, are also in the detention centre inThailand.
None of the families knew about their journeys, she added.
They have also urged the government to ensure that the victims be brought back home safe.
Without saying anything, Mehedi Hasan Biplob, 24, another of the 134 victims, left his home at Rajnagar village of Benapole on September 24, said Fatema Khatun Renu, his sister.
"Biplob called me when he was in Comilla and said he was going to Malaysia. My mother would have never allowed him to go to that country on a boat," said Renu.
Biplob again called his sister on Monday and said he was arrested in Thailand. He also asked Renu not to give anyone any ransom for his release.
Shakirul Islam, a migration researcher, said brokers usually lure the trafficking victims with promises of jobs abroad. But they are offered low-cost journeys costing between Tk 10,000 toTk 20,000, he added.
There were reports that the jobseekers were gathered and kept confined to hotel rooms in Cox's Bazar before being trafficked into Thailand.
Some of them sensed there was something fishy about their journeys, said Shakirul, adding that, they were forced to get into the boat by the brokers.