159 BD trafficking victims return home from Myanmar

A total of 159 Bangladeshi trafficking victims who were rescued by Myanmar authorities on May 29 were brought back home from the neighbouring country on Monday after a flag meeting between their border guards.
The flag meeting between Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) was held near Friendship Bridge point along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, Cox’s Bazar Police Superintendent Shyamal Kumar Nath told a news agency.
Earlier, a team of Border Guard Bangladesh went to the bordering area in the morning to bring the Bangladeshi nationals back.
Commanding Officer of BGB-17 Battalion Lt Col Rabiul Islam led the 18-member BGB team while Chu Nai, Deputy Director of Myanmar Border Police and Immigration led the Myanmar BGP team.
Among the rescued victims — 14 hail from Narayanganj, 13 from Kishoreganj, 18 from Chittagong, 12 from Faridpur, 17 from Habiganj, 78 from Narsingdi, 2 from Naogaon, 3 from Shariatpur and one each from Natore and Barisal districts.
Shyamol Kumar Nath said all the rescued victims were handed over to the local administration.
Later, they were taken to Cultural Centre of Cox’s Bazar town and then sent back to their respective villages after interrogation and completion of all the necessary formalities.
Police will, however, try to identify the traffickers through interrogating the victims and then legal action will be taken against the traffickers after filing cases, he said.
Earlier on May 29, the Myanmar Navy police rescued 727 migrants from Myanmar sea territory.
Later, the Myanmar authorities sent a list of 528 people who intended to return to Bangladesh, to the authorities here.  The government then identified 314 people, out of 528, as Bangladeshi nationals after the police verification.
Of them, 155 victims were brought back from the neighboring country on July 22.
On May 21, Myanmar rescued two boats carrying over 200 people in its water territories with its officials claiming all of them to be from Bangladesh.
Among them, 187 Bangladeshi trafficking victims were brought back home from Myanmar after separate flag meetings between the border guard forces of the two countries on June 8 and June 21 respectively.
The Bangladeshis were reportedly going to Malaysia and Thailand through sea illegally.
-SS