No clue to who traffics illegal migrants to prison, death abroad

Law enforcers have not yet identified who are behind trafficking Bangladeshi migrant workers abroad mainly to Europe and sank in the Mediterranean Sea. At least 1,226 jailed Bangladeshis were repatriated from Libya since last July most of them were prepared to cross the Mediterranean Sea despite the risk of death and going missing at sea.

At least nine died when a boat carrying 52 migrants of different nationalities to Europe sank in the Mediterranean Sea following a fire accident on February 15. "Most of the passengers who were killed in the accident were Bangladeshi nationals," according to the Bangladesh Embassy in Libya.
On January 31, some 139 irregular Bangladeshi migrants who were detained in different areas of Benghazi in Libya, returned home.

The fraudulence faced by migrants in destination countries includes not getting promised jobs, irregular jobs, fake companies, irregular payment, wage theft and physical torture.

A high official of police HQs preferring anonymity told The Daily Observer that  a number of  group illegally sends people to Europe with the help of a foreign ring, the syndicate works in three stages, he said.

"They gradually got involved with human trafficking gangs out of greed to swiftly become rich and worked as a middle-man who sent people abroad via different agencies," he added.

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), over 3,000 migrants have died or gone missing while attempting to cross the Mediterranean from various countries to Europe in 2023. In recent times, European countries have taken a stricter stance on illegal immigration, and both Libyan and Tunisian navies have intensified their surveillance efforts.

According to IOM, a total of 1,655,535 people attempted to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea between January 2016 and June 2023. Of them, 1,164,018 people arrived in Europe, 471,954 were detained by police and 19,563 others went missing in the sea with many of their bodies never found.

According to Wage Earners Welfare Board (WEWB) statistics 4,552 ill-fated migrant workers who returned home as corpses last year. A year before, 3,904 migrants returned as corpses.

Every year, a large number of migrant workers go abroad with dreams but many of them return home in coffins after facing dire situations in the Gulf region, the main destination for Bangladeshi migrant workers, and various other parts of the globe.

The WEWB published data of as early as 1993. Since then, Bangladesh received 51,956 corpses of migrant workers and 34,323 of those arrived in the last 10 years.

Within last year months of 2023, a staggering around 2000 migrants and aspiring migrants, 58 per cent male and the rest female, have lodged complaints against recruiting agencies, middlemen, or employers, as per the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET).

Migration experts said the actual number of complaints is much higher than those formally submitted to the authority, as a considerable number of migrants or aspirant migrants do not lodge complaints officially.

Additionally, numerous allegations have been resolved at the grassroots level through rural arbitration, facilitated by NGOs, they said.

Many aspiring migrants also encounter irregularities within their home country including being scammed by middlemen, who promise to help them migrate but then fail to deliver after taking the money, and being forced into human trafficking under the guise of labour migration.

According to the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, at least 200 Bangladeshis were recruited by a few fake companies in Malaysia last year. With the help of the High Commission, they were later able to find jobs in other companies.

A total of 9,370 Bangladeshi expatriates are detained in prisons in 26 countries, Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud told parliament on February 19.  Of them, the highest 5,746 Bangladeshis are detained in prisons in Saudi Arabia, followed by 508 in Turkey, he added.

He said, according to information received from missions regarding the jailed persons, there is 1 in Portugal, 6 in Egypt, 81 in Italy, 385 in South Africa, 6 in Korea, three in Sri Lanka, 415 in Qatar, 9 in Libya, 19 in Spain, 122 in Hong Kong, 66 in Singapore, 16 in Brunei, 184 people in Beijing, 7 in Chinas Kunming, 404 in Abu Dhabi, 49 in Indonesia, 219 in Malaysia, 1 in Algeria, 4 in Thailand, 28 in Lebanon, 414 in Greece, 217 in Iraq, 508 in Turkey, 358 in Myanmar, 2 in Japan and 100 in Jordan.

Regarding steps taken by Dhaka for their repatriation, he said 1,226 jailed Bangladeshis were repatriated from Libya and 51 from France and other European countries since last July.

In addition, about 1,950 Bangladeshis have been brought back from prisons in India, Myanmar, and various countries in the Middle East.  The Foreign Minister also said that the officials of Bangladesh embassies abroad regularly meet Bangladeshis held in prisons.