Staff Reporter :
Another 125 Bangladeshi trafficking victims were brought back home from Myanmar on Tuesday following a flag meeting between the two countries on Tuesday.
“We have brought back another 125 people, including 20 children in this phase. The remaining 100 Bangladeshis will be brought back soon,” BGB-17 Battalion Sector Commander Colonel NM Anisur Rahman told The New Nation on Tuesday.
He said that, as part of repatriation, a flag meeting between the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and the Myanmar Immigration Department and National Registration Department was held at Myanmar’s Dekibuniya BGP camp near Bandarban’s Ghumdoom border in Bangladesh. “A 20-member BGB team led by commanding Officer of BGB-17 Battalion Lieutenant Colonel Rabiul Islam went to Myanmar to join the meeting at about 11.30am. We began our return journey with 126, but one person fled way on the way,” he said.
He said, they have already handed over the trafficking victims to the Cox’s Bazar district administration to check and crosscheck their identities. Talking to The New Nation, Superintendent of Police of Cox’s Bazar on Tuesday afternoon said that the human trafficking victims were taken to a temporary camp at Cox’s Bazar Cultural Centre in a bid to verify their nationalities for the second time.
“Our police forces have already started interrogating them to ascertain their identities as well as how and in what way they had sailed for Malaysia and who had influenced them to take the risky journey,” he said. He said, after completion of all legal procedures they will be handed over to their respective family members as soon as possible.
The Myanmar Navy on May 21 and 29 rescued 208 and 727 fortune seekers from their territorial waters and claimed that all of them were from Bangladesh. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 501 Bangladeshi trafficking victims had so far been repatriated from Myanmar in five phases since June 8, while another 325 others on the waiting list to return home.
Earlier on August 10, about 159 Bangladeshi trafficking victims were brought back home from Myanmar and 155 others on July 22.
On June 8, about 150 Bangladeshi trafficking victims were brought back home Earlier on May 29, the Myanmar Navy police rescued 727 migrants from Myanmar and on May 21, the country rescued two boats carrying over 208 people in its water territories with its officials claiming all of them were from Bangladesh. Later, the Myanmar authorities sent a list of people who intended to return to Bangladesh, to the authorities.
