A total of 625 people were seen huddled onboard a 25-metre long fishing trawler with the Myanmar flag when the vessel arrived at the Bangladesh Navy Ready Response Berth at Patenga, Chittagong, yesterday evening.
Most of them had been in the trawler for 10-15 days before being rescued by the navy from deep sea area of the Bay of Bengal on Monday morning. They had food that would hardly last two to three more days.
“We wanted to take money and other belongings before starting the journey but the brokers only allowed two to three dresses for each,” said one of the rescued.
These people were heading to Malaysia by the trawler after receiving offers from human traffickers of going abroad without any cost.
Elam Bahar of Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar told the Dhaka Tribune that her husband was in Malaysia and she attempted to go to her husband. A broker named Selim had come to her with the offer.
“Selim hired me a boat and some others from Teknaf 10 days ago while we got on the trawler three days ago. The cost of the entire journey was supposed to be paid after reaching Malaysia,” she said.
A boy named Munna, along with her mother Monwara Begum, of Dohazari upazila, said his father was in Malaysia and they also had taken the free offer from a person in their locality.
A middle-aged woman from Mangdu in Myanmar got on the trawler seven days ago to go to Malaysia to attend the wedding of an acquaintance.
The stories of Tayeba and her three children from Teknaf, and Aeysha and her two kids from Merulla in Myanmar are also same. Bangladesh Navy ship Durjoy rescued 614 people and 21 boatmen from deep sea, 135 nautical miles southwest of the Saint Martin’s Island.
A total of 555 were men while 49 were Myanmar nationals, 31 female and 26 children, said a press release of Bangladesh Navy.
The detainees were handed over to Patenga police upon arrival at the jetty yesterday around 6:30pm.
Officer-in-Charge Quazi Shahabuddin said they had already made preparations to verify the identities of the detainees, but most would be released as they were victims.
He said they would interrogate the traffickers to find out more information about the racket.
Different law enforcement agencies have rescued more than 1,000 people from Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar since September this year.
The agencies say traffickers have become active taking advantage of the calm in the Bay.