When a friend asked Md Ripon, a young man from Ratankandi upazila of Sirajganj, if he was up for a beach vacation at Teknaf, Ripon happily seized the chance to enjoy a break at the popular tourist town.
But little did he know that the journey was only the beginning of a tormenting ordeal that would put him through torture and starvation at sea.
As soon as Ripon reached the coastal town of Teknaf, his friend – Md Zakir – struck a deal with local human trafficking agents and sold him to them for as little as Tk15,000.
The traffickers forcefully took Ripon to a Malaysia-bound trawler waiting at sea; the vessel had 164 passengers, while most of the crew were nationals of Myanmar or Thailand. There, he suffered and witnessed torture by his captors, who also deprived the passengers of proper food or water.
On Tuesday, the scenario changed. Fearing the risk of getting captured in newly beefed up efforts to detain traffickers, the crew, middlemen and 18 female passengers from Myanmar boarded another trawler, and set the boat full of captives adrift at sea, leaving them all to die.
Even though they had no training on piloting a boat at sea, Ripon and his fellow passengers managed to steer the boat towards St Martins Island, where the Coast Guard picked them up on Tuesday.
Ripon is one of the 116 men rescued from the boat, and are currently receiving medical treatment from a team of International Organization for Migration.
The rescued men included four photographers from Cox’s Bazar – Md Rafique, Abul Kashem, Jahangir Alam, Md Hashem – who were also kidnapped by traffickers from Teknaf and forced to climb aboard the trawler.
Although many of the rescued people were taken captive against their will, most of them were on the boat with hopes of travelling to Malaysia.
Jahangir, 32, from Narsingdi, told the Dhaka Tribune he had been stuck in the trawler for 45 days straight after being promised a trip to Malaysia by an agent named Yusuf.
During the entire time, he and others were given flattened rice (Chira) and jaggery (Gur) as breakfast, while for dinner, they were fed medicine-mixed rice that caused people to vomit, Jahangir said. He added that saline water was the only drink available.
Nurul Hakim, 53, from Ukhia upazila in Cox’s Bazar, said the human traffickers on the trawler beat up people whenever someone moved too much or asked for water.
Md Masum, from Madaripur, said during his 45-day stay on the boat, he was repeatedly tortured by two human trafficking agents from Teknaf, named Nobi Hossain and Babul.
Dr Soumen, who is part of the IOM medical team, said none of the rescued passengers were in any critical condition, but some of them were in an emaciated state.
Teknaf police station OC Khondokar Ataur Rahman said the rescued people have been handed over to the police, and steps would be take to reunite them with their families.