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Traffickers keep GETTING THEIR WAY

Promising better lives abroad, syndicate traffics job seekers to India
SHARIFUL ISLAM
Naim Hossain Sujan thought he would not make it out alive. Lured in with the promise of a well-paying job in France, the 22-year-old from Shariatpur ended up in a ruthless cycle of human trafficking, controlled by a racket in India.
“I came back alive because my family could pay a ransom,” said Naim.
In 2019, Naim’s father initially paid Tk 5 lakh to local syndicate members in 2019, a partial payment for the job in France, while the rest was supposed to be paid upon his arrival in France.
But fate had something else in store for Naim. Rather than taking him to France, the gang took him to India on December 27, 2019.
It was just the beginning of his misfortunes.
“They started torturing me for money. Often, they threatened to harm me if my father failed to pay them the rest of the agreed amount,” recalls Naim.
“When my father paid them another Tk 6.8 lakh, they returned my passport. But they did not free me.”
After a series of unfortunate events, Naim finally managed to escape and return home on March 24, 2020.
Naim is one of many victims of human trafficking from the country. Several syndicates have been trafficking local job seekers to India, promising them to send to Australia, Portugal, the Netherlands, Romania, Greece, France, Malta, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Egypt, the Maldives and Cambodia and even Canada.
According to investigators, gang members contact them through their agents in different districts. Another major medium is social media.
After being trafficked to India, a major destination for trafficked women and children are “shelter homes” in Kolkata and Delhi, where a series of torturous acts await them.
Gang members in India then force the victims to call their families in Bangladesh asking for more money. The victims are threatened with their lives upon failure to pay more. Some were reportedly even taken to Sri Lanka, where they were left in a jungle.
They would solicit Tk 12 to 15 lakh from each victim.
The horrifying stories of their sufferings came to the fore after law enforcers busted two separate trafficking rackets in Dhaka recently and arrested ringleaders and their associates.
According to Khandaker Al Moin, Rab’s legal and media wing director, more than a hundred human trafficking gangs are active across the country.
“We have drives ongoing to arrest members of these gangs,” said Moin.
Since its formation in 2004, Rab alone arrested 1,207 people for their involvement in trafficking and rescued 1,093 victims -- 792 males and 301 females -- in 406 operations, according to the Rab wing.
During a drive on December 20 last year, Rab busted a transnational trafficking gang in the capital and arrested the ringleader along with two associates.
In another raid on June 6 last year, Criminal Investigation Department arrested four other members of the gang.
Mozammel Haque, commanding officer of Rab-4, said following the drive, the arrestees admitted to trafficking more than 100 victims to India over the years, promising lucrative jobs in Europe and Australia.
Saiful Islam Dewan (21) from Munshiganj’s Tongibari is yet another victim of the gang. His father Hanif Dewan said he provided Tk 6.20 lakh to ringleader Selim after he promised to send his son to Canada.
He said the gang took his son to India around two years back, but then sent him back.
Jahangir Gazi (34) from Shariatpur, another victim, narrated how he managed to return home from India in November 2019 after spending three months in captivity.
In his desperate attempt to go abroad, he met Mollik Rezaul Haque alias Selim at Dhaka’s Rupnagar in August 2019 through a neighbour. Selim promised to send him to Australia if he paid Tk 16 lakh.
Once the payment was made, he was taken to India, as the gang told him that getting a visa from there would be easier.
Gang members made him a fake Indian NID card and passport and asked him to wait for his visa to Australia.
The gang also convinced him that they would send his nephew Akash to the Netherlands. After the family provided Tk 7.5 lakh for Akash, the gang took the college student to India in December 2020.
“Since then, my nephew has been confined to a safe house in Delhi,” Jahangir told this correspondent on February 14.
Jahangir also mentioned that Selim and his associates kept Akash in a safe house, tortured him and threatened to kill him if they could not pay them more.
“I provided Tk 23.5 lakh to Selim for me and my nephew in good faith to go abroad. I never realised in my worst nightmare that we would be trapped by a trafficking gang.”