MOHAMMAD JAMIL KHAN and TOUSIF KAIUM

For more than a year, Shakil Ahmed from Sunamganj Sadar survived in Libya on a single meal a day -- a piece of hard, stale bread; some vegetables; and half a litre of water.

With a dream of finding a better life in Europe, Shakil, a college student, accepted a broker’s offer to take him to Greece for Tk 10.5 lakh in 2023. He flew to Egypt via Dubai and was then taken to Libya by road.

The 21-year-old never made it to Europe. Instead, he, along with 147 others, remained stranded in Libya.

Finally, he was brought back home at the end of 2024 with the help of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Shakil, whose father died years ago, said his mother and sister borrowed Tk 10.5 lakh from relatives and other sources to finance his journey.

“The money I paid the broker has not yet been recovered. My family is still trying hard to gradually pay off the debt,” he said.

His narrative underscores a persistent reality: the mounting number of deaths and systemic exploitation have not deterred Bangladeshis from taking perilous journeys from Libya to European shores.

UNHCR data show that in 2025,

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