UNB, Dhaka :
Trafficking-in-persons is the fastest growing criminal activity worldwide, including Bangladesh, and it takes in several forms.
But it remains underreported that trafficking survivors in Bangladesh are working to stop this criminal activity through awareness campaign.
A group of trafficking survivors came under a platform named ‘Anirban’ and they are now working at the community level engaging themselves in schools, madrasas and village discussions to create awareness and prevent human trafficking in five districts, including Cox’s Bazar. At the same time, they are advocating for safe and orderly migration and informing community people about the advantage of safe migration.
While visiting Cox’s Bazar, this correspondent met a dozen of trafficking survivors who described their ordeals and how they returned home having near-death experience.
It was January 4, 2014. I was allured by a female broker to go abroad for better future. I was taken to a small boat forcibly from which I was shifted to a relatively large vessel at deep sea, ” Md Forkan, a 23-year-old man and one of the trafficking survivors, told UNB. Forkan, hailed from Kawarkhop union of Ramu said he found himself in the large vessel along with 228 males and females and they were taken to a deep jungle in Thailand after over 20-day
boat journey. aWe were not given adequate food, rather we were tortured in many ways when we screamed for help,” the young man recalls.
He said, he met many people from different countries, including from Bangladesh, in the Thai jungle and heard about horrible stories how people were buried there for failing to give traffickers ransom.
They (traffickers) communicated with my family at home and realised Tk 2 lakh through their local agent – Karim. Yet I was not released,” Forkan said. Forhan and others were rescued by a drive conducted by Thai authority and returned home November 11, the same year with the help of Bangladesh Embassy in Thailand.
Trafficking-in-persons is the fastest growing criminal activity worldwide, including Bangladesh, and it takes in several forms.
But it remains underreported that trafficking survivors in Bangladesh are working to stop this criminal activity through awareness campaign.
A group of trafficking survivors came under a platform named ‘Anirban’ and they are now working at the community level engaging themselves in schools, madrasas and village discussions to create awareness and prevent human trafficking in five districts, including Cox’s Bazar. At the same time, they are advocating for safe and orderly migration and informing community people about the advantage of safe migration.
While visiting Cox’s Bazar, this correspondent met a dozen of trafficking survivors who described their ordeals and how they returned home having near-death experience.
It was January 4, 2014. I was allured by a female broker to go abroad for better future. I was taken to a small boat forcibly from which I was shifted to a relatively large vessel at deep sea, ” Md Forkan, a 23-year-old man and one of the trafficking survivors, told UNB. Forkan, hailed from Kawarkhop union of Ramu said he found himself in the large vessel along with 228 males and females and they were taken to a deep jungle in Thailand after over 20-day
boat journey. aWe were not given adequate food, rather we were tortured in many ways when we screamed for help,” the young man recalls.
He said, he met many people from different countries, including from Bangladesh, in the Thai jungle and heard about horrible stories how people were buried there for failing to give traffickers ransom.
They (traffickers) communicated with my family at home and realised Tk 2 lakh through their local agent – Karim. Yet I was not released,” Forkan said. Forhan and others were rescued by a drive conducted by Thai authority and returned home November 11, the same year with the help of Bangladesh Embassy in Thailand.
