Rohingya women tell tale of marriage trap
Trawler capsize in Bay
ABDUL MONAYEM KHAN | Friday, 14 February 2020
COX'S BAZAR, Feb 13: Young Rohingya women of the trawler that sank in the Bay of Bengal recently were going to Malaysia in hopes of getting married, most of the rescued Rohingya women said to the Coast Guard officials.
According to reliable sources, after two years human traffickers along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border became active again in the current winter season.
The human traffickers were sending about 100 Rohingya women to Malaysia by the sunken trawler on Tuesday, enticing them with the temptation of marriage and jobs.
Sources said the traffickers set the trap of marriage between the Rohingya women and a group of Rohingya youths staying in Malaysia. They arrange mobile phone conversation between them. After a long time of phone chatting Rohingya women agree to marry their lovers in Malaysia in good faith.
The traffickers were trying to implement that kind of plan on Tuesday night when the trawler capsized killing 15. The survivor Rohingya said that 138 passengers aboard the trawler were going to Malaysia. Of them about 100 passengers were Rohingya women.
Rescued Rohingya girl Farida Aktar (23) said that she was an inmate of the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp at Ukhiya. Human traffickers arranged an affair between one Nurul Haq and her. Farida was chatting with Nurul Haq over cell phone who was staying in Malaysia. She said she was going to Malaysia by trawler to marry him. But her dream was shattered by the trawler capsize.
Like Farida Akter, Noor Jahan (25), Rahima Begum (22), Dildar Begum (20), Ismat Ara (21) and Sakina Khatun (24) made gave same confessions to reporters.
"We were going to our would-be husbands paying Tk 30,000 to Tk 35,000 per head to the traffickers. But all dream was shattered by the trawler capsize", one of them said.
According to sources, now human traffickers are very active in each refugee camps of Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas. They collect girls and women from refugee camps applying different strategies.
However, after the trawler capsize law and order officials sped up vigilance in Rohingya camp areas and Bangladesh-Myanmar border areas. Coast Guard and police arrested eight human traffickers in Teknaf so far.