Killing of poor job seekers

Death, as it seems, stalks always the Bangladeshi job-seekers trying to enter foreign lands illegally. They die in high seas, deserts and jungles while making their bids to become illegal alien workers. However, it is not that the Bangladeshis are the only people to risk their lives to get better-paying jobs in affluent countries. Illegal migrants from a number of South Asian, Southeast Asian and African countries also make desperate attempts to enter other countries illegally using water, air and land routes. Many of them also embrace death.
But what had happened last week in the Bay of Bengal was horrific. Never before, any Bangladeshi worker seeking to sneak into an alien land illegally had fallen victim to the traffickers' bullet. There are instances where traffickers subjected these poor and, in most cases, illiterate job-seekers to torture or inhuman behaviour, but they never resorted to killing.  Five Bangladeshis were reportedly shot dead and an unspecified number of them were hacked to death and their bodies thrown into the sea by the traffickers and their accomplices in the last week's incident. The victims were among 333 Bangladeshis who were on their way to Malaysia by a trawler.
The human traffickers lured these people promising safe entry to Malaysia in exchange of a sizeable amount of money each. But when the journey started the traffickers came out in their true colours and subjected the job-seekers to sufferings. When the latter protested, the traffickers and their accomplices allegedly shot and killed a few of them and hacked many more to death and threw their bodies into the sea. On receiving an SOS from one of the passengers of the trawler, the members of the Bangladesh Coast Guard rushed to the spot and rescued the ill-fated people and arranged necessary treatment of the injured people.
Last year at least 250 people, while being ferried from Bangladesh coast to Malaysia by the human traffickers, died in trawler-capsize. Such deaths had happened in the past also and there is no guarantee that the same would not take place in the future despite all these shocking incidents.  In fact, it is difficult to say how many of the Bangladeshi expatriate workers are legal. The government has some statistics about the migrant workers. But those do not say the whole truth. One can accuse the government of the failure to nab the human traffickers. But when the job-seekers out of their ignorance voluntarily fall into the traps laid by the traffickers, it becomes really difficult for the government to stop recurrence of such incidents.
If exemplary punishments could be meted out to some traffickers, it could have a deterrent effect on the illegal migration. Moreover, the ministry of expatriates' welfare and overseas employment should arrange campaign at the grassroots to inform the people about the serious risks of human trafficking and the mechanism employed by the traffickers to cheat people.  The people, who are interested to take up employment abroad, do need to know the risks of accepting jobs arranged by the private parties and cross-check the authenticity of such jobs.