“We were taken to Panama from Brazil sometimes in a vehicle and sometimes by walking for days through the jungle. We even had to walk 10 hours at a stretch. My body swelled due to insect bites and there was a crisis of water in the jungle. We had no way to return,” said Mofazzal Hossain, who returned to the country from the USA after illegally migrating there.
Many Bangladeshis like him are being subjected to human trafficking while trying to migrate to the USA to fulfill their dreams.
This organised ring has been luring Bangladeshis to illegally migrate to the USA after taking a large sum of money from them for a long time. We have arrested only two of them. Efforts are on to arrest the rest of this ring
US officials have tracked down a Bangladeshi human trafficking ring after the arrest of more than 50 Bangladeshis, who had left home for the US, in the South American country of Guyana.
The US Embassy in Dhaka filed a case with the Gulshan police station over the incident. Following that, the police have arrested a man named Mohammad Ruhul Amin, owner of a travel agency in the capital’s Paltan area and his associate Aklima Akter alias Beauty.
The Cyber and Special Crime unit of the detective branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) is investigating the case.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, Tarique Ahmed, deputy commissioner (DC) of the cyber and special crime unit, said, “This organised ring has been luring Bangladeshis to illegally migrate to the USA after taking a large sum of money from them for a long time. We have arrested only two of them. Efforts are on to arrest the rest of this ring.”
The DB police have informed the court in writing that the members of this ring, including Ruhul Amin, have taken more than a hundred of Bangladeshis to Guyana and Suriname.
Speaking to Mofazzal Hossain and analysing the documents of the case, it has been learnt that he was taken to India through the Jashore border on 10 March 2018. He was then taken to Kenya by air. From there, he was taken to Brazil via Ethiopia on another flight. From there he was taken to Panama through Peru and Colombia.
Trafficking in tourist and business visas
Officials investigating the incidents say the members of the ring first take a large amount of money from people luring them for migration to the US. Then they took them to New Delhi in India. From there, they used to take people to Istanbul, Turkey on tourist and business visas.
From there, the ring members take them to Guyana and Suriname on different flights of Copa Airlines and Caribbean Airlines using new tickets and boarding passes. And the traffickers pass them to American territory through the Mexico border.
More than 50 Bangladeshi citizens were arrested in five days from 12 to 17 March by the Georgetown immigration police while trying to enter Guyana illegally.
Following that the US embassy in Dhaka filed a case accusing three people named Ruhul Amin, Aklima and Fahad Hossain. The people involved in the investigation say they have tracked down two others named Arif and Sonnet, who are members of the trafficking ring.
Ruhul Amin was arrested on 10 July. The police have seized a hard-disk from Ruhul’s travel agency named Japan Tours and Travels.
Ruhul is also accused in another human trafficking case filed with the Jatrabari police station.
Speaking regarding the allegations against Ruhul, his lawyer Mohammad Jewel said, “My client is not involved in human trafficking. He hasn’t sent any Bangladeshi to the USA. However, he sent people to Guyana following the legal procedure.”
The dreadful path to the US
Mofazzal Hossain, a resident from Cumilla had a dream to settle in the USA and change his fortune. For this he reached a verbal agreement of Tk 4 million with one of his US expatriate relatives.
However, he had to endure immense sufferings at the hands of human traffickers after he was cheated by them. Mofazzal had to return to the country empty handed.
He filed a case with the Shahjahanpur police station in the capital over the incident on 5 July under the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act.
Speaking to Mofazzal Hossain and analysing the documents of the case, it has been learnt that he was taken to India through the Jashore border on 10 March 2018. He was then taken to Kenya by air. From there, he was taken to Brazil via Ethiopia on another flight. From there he was taken to Panama through Peru and Colombia.
Mofazzal reached Mexico via Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. He was trafficked to the USA through the Mexico border.
There, Mofazzal was arrested for not having any legal documents. An US court barred him from entering the country for five years. Mofazzal said, “It took four months to reach the USA. I still feel a chill in the spine thinking about the days of crossing the dense forest of Brazil. There were days when I had to walk all day without any food. It was such a frightening experience.”
Speaking to Prothom Alo, Fazlur Rahman, additional deputy commissioner (ADC) of the DB police’s cyber and special crime (North), said that work is underway to bring people involved in human trafficking to the USA to book.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, he said that they have learnt the names of other members of the ring by questioning Ruhul Amin and Aklima. Drives are on to arrest them, the police official said.
*This report appeared on the online version of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu