Over one hundred Bangladeshis were recently freed from slavery in Thailand.
The rescued men had been kept against their will to work at a rubber plantation in southern Thailand.
The end of their ordeal sheds light on the scale of misery endured by people who are lured and kidnapped by human traffickers. The workers had reportedly been mainly enticed by false promises of jobs in Malaysia, before being drugged and kidnapped.
According to the Bangladesh embassy in Thailand, this year alone over 700 Bangladeshis have been rescued from similar conditions after being trafficked to Thailand.
It goes without saying that the criminals in Bangladesh who are abducting and selling our people into slavery should be apprehended, and given the most severe penalty.
However, we are astonished by reports that some members of the Thai police and military have been complicit in these cases, and have sometimes been directly involved in delivering illegal Bangladeshi migrants to traffickers.
Our first priority should be to repatriate and rehabilitate the Bangladeshis who were enslaved in Thailand. A full investigation should be undertaken to determine how many of them were delivered to slave traders by Thai police and military.
The foreign ministry should demand the government of Thailand pay compensation to each of the Bangladeshis who were delivered to slave traders by the Thai police and military.
Both the Bangladesh and Thailand governments must send a clear message that zero tolerance will be shown to law enforcers who collude in or co-operate with the enslavement of Bangladeshi citizens.
