MIGRANTS who returned to the country after being exploited were thrown into jails whereas the perpetrators behind illegal human trafficking either remain scot-free or face little action with an utter surprise. A total of 83 returnee migrant workers were sent to jail on September 1 under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) on ‘fictitious’ grounds of tarnishing the image of Bangladesh abroad as they completed quarantine after returning from Vietnam and Qatar. Forty-four eminent citizens and Bangladesh Civil Society for Migrants, a civil society network, on Thursday demanded the release of the returnee migrant workers who were arrested by the authorities after returning from different countries. It is cruel when we see the abused migrants abroad got arrested in the country when many perpetrators after committing crimes, laundering money, killing innocent, etc are enjoying impunity.
Some 219 migrants were also sent to jail on the same grounds as they returned from Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain earlier. Out of 107 migrants who were deported from Vietnam on August 18, 81 – instead of being reunited with their families at the end of their 14-day quarantine – have been incarcerated instead. They were arrested under the dubious Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which allows the state to detain those suspected of “tarnishing the country’s image abroad. Some of these returnee migrants spoke about how Bangladeshi and Vietnamese manpower brokers, in connivance with Bangladeshi recruiting and travel agents, arranged fake job documents and sent them to Vietnam over the past years. The crime they were accused of in Vietnam involved holding demonstrations in front of the Bangladesh Embassy demanding justice and repatriation.
It is disgraceful that these migrants, after facing such injustices abroad, are being unjustly held and harassed once again at home. We urge the authorities to release these victims of human trafficking and to immediately conduct a judicial investigation into the recruiting agencies and the officials who allowed their trafficking to occur in the first place. If this situation is not handled judiciously, our unfair treatment of victims of human trafficking will tarnish the country’s image far more than any acts committed by our workers abroad.
Some 219 migrants were also sent to jail on the same grounds as they returned from Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain earlier. Out of 107 migrants who were deported from Vietnam on August 18, 81 – instead of being reunited with their families at the end of their 14-day quarantine – have been incarcerated instead. They were arrested under the dubious Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which allows the state to detain those suspected of “tarnishing the country’s image abroad. Some of these returnee migrants spoke about how Bangladeshi and Vietnamese manpower brokers, in connivance with Bangladeshi recruiting and travel agents, arranged fake job documents and sent them to Vietnam over the past years. The crime they were accused of in Vietnam involved holding demonstrations in front of the Bangladesh Embassy demanding justice and repatriation.
It is disgraceful that these migrants, after facing such injustices abroad, are being unjustly held and harassed once again at home. We urge the authorities to release these victims of human trafficking and to immediately conduct a judicial investigation into the recruiting agencies and the officials who allowed their trafficking to occur in the first place. If this situation is not handled judiciously, our unfair treatment of victims of human trafficking will tarnish the country’s image far more than any acts committed by our workers abroad.
