Eighteen Bangladeshi human trafficking victims returned home from Myanmar early Wednesday.
A Thai Airways flight carrying the victims who were trapped and imprisoned in a scam centre in Myanmar, landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 12:45am on the day.
Bangladesh鈥檚 foreign affairs ministry, the Criminal Investigation Department and the Bangladesh embassy in Thailand jointly give efforts to bring the victims back home while the Brac鈥檚 migration programme supported the initiative.
Brac鈥檚 Migration and Youth Platform associate director Shariful Hasan said that the victims鈥� families had contacted Brac for help in rescuing them and then they started the process.
The rescued individuals are Omar Faruk, Rasheduzzaman Islam, Md Alif, Raihan Sobhan, Sheikh Arman, Md Pavel Chowdhury, Monir Hossain, Md Ismail Hossain, Md Nizam Uddin, Zahir Uddin, Tanveer Akand Rafi, Towanur Khalilullah, Md Syamon Hossain, Md Ujjal Hossain, Mehedi Hasan, Md Kaisar Hossain, Md Shah Alam and Md Akash Ali.
According a press release, traffickers lured these Bangladeshis to Thailand with promises of lucrative jobs with high salaries.
From there, they were taken to a scam centre in Myanmar and forced into engaging in cybercrimes.
One of the victims, Md Alif, who hails from Chattogram, said that he used to work on a ship in Dubai.
鈥業 was lured by the promise of a higher salary for a data entry job and taken to Thailand. From there, the traffickers took me to the Thai-Myanmar border in Mass. I was held hostage with many others at gunpoint and sold into a scam centre. I was imprisoned there for six months and subjected to severe abuse. I had no choice but to work in the scam centre to save my life,鈥� he added.
Those who refused to comply faced brutal torture, including electric shocks. One victim became critically ill, vomiting blood. He was taken to a hospital along with another Bangladeshi named Junayed. Getting the opportunity, Junayed escaped by crossing a river into Thailand and initiated efforts to rescue the others, said the release.
CID additional superintendent of police Mostafizur Rahman said that the alleged key trafficker, Iftekharul Islam Rony, was facing human trafficking charges in eight separate cases in various police stations.
He was arrested on January 18 at the Chattogram airport, and efforts are underway to arrest another alleged key trafficker, Abdullah Al Noman, he said.
Traffickers lure people with offers of highly paid jobs in positions such as computer operators, typists and call centre operators through fake web sites, emails, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram, Shariful said.
Once the victims are tricked into the scam centres, they are held at gunpoint and forced to participate in the cyber scams, he said.
Shariful stressed the importance of raising awareness about such scams, especially for those planning to work abroad.