Thirteen illegal migrants about to be smuggled to Malaysia were picked up in the outer anchorage area of Chittagong Port by the Bangladesh Navy yesterday.
Two migrant smugglers were also nabbed from the small engine boat during the operation.
The would-be migrants told the Dhaka Tribune that they consciously boarded the boat headed for Malaysia because they were assured of reaching their destination safely by posing as crew members.
Migrant smuggling, in which adult illegal migrants consent to go to another country, and human trafficking, in which people are coerced, misled, misinformed or are compelled by their guardians to be exploited abroad, both occur between Bangladesh and its wealthier South-East Asian neighbours, sources said.
“We gathered in a hotel in Chittagong city’s Pathantuli area a week ago according to the instructions of the smugglers. Two of them, Mamun and Badal, took our belongings,” said Belal, one of the migrants.
“We were told not to come out of the room and were given a lungi and a shirt each to wear. We were provided with three meals a day,” he said.
Belal said he had heard that the smuggling racket had sent some 36 people to Malaysia already.
The Bangladesh Navy’s Anti-Smuggling Cell Officer-in-Charge Commander Atiqur Rahman said the small engine boat was intercepted around 3:30am because its movements raised suspicions.
The would-be migrants and their smugglers were handed over to Patenga police station and a case was lodged in this regard, he said.
The migrant smugglers – Mohammad Shahin, 26, and Rafiq Nur, 46, – are both from Anwara upazila of Chittagong district, police said.
The intercepted illegal migrants are Bahauddin, 34, Belal Hossain, 34, and Johir Imam, 25, from Feni district; Ataur Rahman, 28, Mamunur Rashid, 18, Rabiul Islam, 18, and Ansar Ali, 35, from Bogra district; Faruk Khan, 26, and Mithu Sardar, 22, from Rajbari district; Abdul Haq Mia, 23, from Narsingdi district; and Durud Alam, 24, Sabuj Mia, 23, and Lipon Mia, 19, from Sunamgonj district, police said.
Siblings Belal and Johir told the Dhaka Tribune that their brother, Delwar, has legally been resident in Malaysia for the last seven years.
“Recently he told us his colleague, Majibor, and four others, were able to take people from Bangladesh to Malaysia via the sea route. These smugglers assured us that we would be recruited as cooks and staff on their boat and that they would leave us in Malaysia,” the siblings said.
“We paid Tk200,000 before the trip and were to pay another Tk200,000 upon arriving in Malaysia,” they said with frustration in their voices.
Thwarted migrant Abdul Haq Mia said he was brought to the port city a week ago by another smuggler named Anwar. He said a man named Sajjad talked to him over the mobile phone and instructed told him what he had to do.
“I paid Tk240,000 to go to Malaysia,” he said.
The smugglers told their “crew” it would take 15-20 days to reach Malaysia.
Arrested smuggler Shahin said the boat was owned by one Nur Alam.
Some 3,793 people have picked up in the vicinity of Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong city and district over the last five years.
Some 15,000-20,000 people have migrated illegally or have been trafficked to Thailand and Malaysia in the last decade, Police Headquarters Anti-Human Trafficking Special Committee said following an investigation in 2014.
The committee found the existence of 11 international and 230 Bangladeshi human traffickers and smugglers working under the command of a Thai-Malaysian expatriate woman named Manaking.