Bangladesh will take back all Bangladeshis found anywhere in the world and it will also urge the international community to take the responsibility of nationals of other countries and address their plight.
This is the message that Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque will give at the regional conference on human trafficking to be held in Bangkok tomorrow where high-level delegations from 15 countries will take part.
Bangkok is organising the conference in the backdrop of growing number of human trafficking to Malaysia through sea via Thailand.
“We will send a clear message. We will take the responsibilities of Bangladeshis, not the citizens of other countries,” said a senior official of the government.
Bangladesh is a country of destination and transit and the government will also urge the international community to help the country to address it, he said. The government is facing a big challenge and it has prepared a strategy to address it, he added.
Different government wings and organisations have banged their heads together to formulate the strategy to address the human trafficking that have shaken not only Bangladesh but also the whole world.
Bangladesh ambassadors in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar also came to Dhaka to give their views about the ground reality.
“Bangladesh is facing challenge from two sides,” said another senior government official.
Dhaka believes that the root cause of human trafficking is Rohingya issue in Myanmar.
If Bangladesh confronts Myanmar over the issue, it will create tension between the two countries, but on the other hand, if it does not do that, it faces false campaign by Myanmar that propagates that Rohingyas are Bengalis, the official said.
“We will try to solve the problem by maintaining friendly relations with Myanmar. Many things can be said without confrontation,” he added.
About the identity of 208 people who were found in Myanmar coast on Friday, he said a Bangladeshi team went to Sittew to interview them. “We are yet to get their reports,” he said.
The team will send a list of possible Bangladeshis for nationality verification and after verification, they will be repatriated.
