The Bangladeshi migrant workers were forced to give Tk 1.20 billion as ransom during the last one and a half years after being trafficked and held hostage by unscrupulous recruiters and their agents in Iran, said a report of an intelligence agency.
It said, some 2,000 Bangladeshis, who were held captive in Iran, returned home in 2013 with the help of the Bangladesh embassy in Tehran. Each victim family member was forced to pay Tk 0.3 to Tk 1.8 million to the abductors as ransom to get their near and dear ones freed.
Traffickers usually took Tk 0.5 to Tk 0.6 million from each of the ill-fated migrants, said the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) report.
On the other hand, using the returnee victims' references, the Shikkha Shastha Unnayan Karzakram (SHISHUK), a non-governmental organisation, figured out that nearly 6,000 to 7,000 Bangladeshis still now are held hostage by the traffickers in Iran.
Sakiul Millat Morshed, executive director of the SHISHUK, which works on human trafficking issue, said it is difficult to get the actual figure. The Bangladesh embassy in Iran should take effective measures in this connection, he said.
A gang of Bangladeshi labour traffickers based in Iran allured the migrants mainly in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman with the assurance of providing lucrative jobs in European countries like Turkey, Greece, and Italy with huge salaries. Sometimes, Bangladesh-based agents of the traffickers allured the aspirants for attractive jobs in Iran.
But the fraudsters lock them up in some neighbouring countries like Iran or Turkey, torture them ruthlessly and transmit sounds of their screams over phone to get ransom money from their family members at home.
The Bangladesh-based agents of the traffickers collect ransom money using unknown Bkash accounts or similar means like courier services, according to CID information.
Many of them, thousands in number rather than in dozens or hundreds, have been forcibly engaged in Iranian factories. Thus the victims are forced to work there without salary till the traffickers collect ransom from the Bangladeshi relatives or family members of the victims, said the report.
Special Police Superintendent of the CID (organised crime) Ashraful Islam said a section of travel agencies and middlemen is involved in such evil deeds. They allure the fortune-seekers to give lucrative jobs abroad.
"We believe that a large number of Bangladeshi migrants are being cheated by middlemen and kept hostage abroad by a section of traffickers," he said.
"But at this moment, it is not possible to mention the exact number," said Mr Islam adding that a three-member team of CID officials is now in Iran to investigate the overall situation.
Recently, 74 victim migrants came back home under a joint initiative of the CID police and Rights Jessore, an NGO, with the help of the Bangladesh embassy. Of them, one migrant died of inhuman torture by the abductors, Binoy Krishna Mallick, executive director of the Rights Jessore told the FE.
A total of 23 cases were filed and Rahmat Ali alias Faruque was arrested by the police because of his alleged connection with trafficking.
He said some 40 more people are under process of repatriation by the Bangladesh embassy in Tehran. He said, to stop such misdeed, the embassy should be more active.
Some 22 Bangladeshis, who were held hostage in Iran and who returned home last month, said they were undergoing untold sufferings during their captivity.
Eight travel agencies sent them to Iran promising them lucrative jobs. They sent them to Iran through the Chittagong airport via Oman and Dubai.
Kamrul, 23, who went to Iran last January, said a local middleman promised him a good job in a shipping company in Iran.
He spent Tk 0.4 million as migration fee and the travel agency gave him assurance of a job with Tk 60,000 monthly salary.
But after reaching Iran, he was confined in a torture cell by the traffickers who demanded more money. But when he refused to give extra money, they tortured him and transmitted his crying sounds over telephone to their family members at home.
"My family gave Tk 0.2 million to the Bangladeshi agents of the traffickers," he added.
Ali Haider Chowdhury, the newly elected vice president of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA), said the government should strengthen the monitoring system in airports.
About the alleged involvement of recruitment agencies, he said if any manpower recruiter is involved in such a crime, the government should bring them to justice under the existing laws.
Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Secretary Khandaker Shawkat Hossain said, workers often try to go to another country from their job destinations to recover higher migration costs they pay. But they fall prey to human traffickers.
To stop such incidents, the government has initiated a database to send workers abroad so that the migration cost could be minimised and also dishonest middleman system be reduced, he said.
"At the same time, we are trying to explore markets for increasing jobs through official channel and a new law will help reduce trafficking," Mr Hossain also said.
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