The US embassy has filed a case against five Bangladeshis for their alleged involvement in human trafficking.
The US embassy official Michael Lee filed the case with Gulshan police station on Monday.
The accused are Mofizur Rahman, Ashraful Alam Bhuiyan, Mohammad Jaman, Bhasani and Mohammad Nur Alam.
Lee in the case statement said Mofizur and Ashraful went to the US embassy for visa interview on 11 February. At one stage of the interview, they confessed to having a link with a human trafficking gang.
They mainly work as middlemen. They submitted counterfeit documents to go to the US.
The case statement alleged that Ashraful confessed that he works as a middleman sending people to the US through South American country Paraguay. He confessed that an immigration officer at Shahjalal International Airport helps him in human trafficking in exchange for money.
According to the case statement, Mofizur is involved in human trafficking to Dubai from Bangladesh. He also sent people illegally to the US in connivance with other middlemen. He sent his own brother to the South American country Suriname via India who finally entered the US through the Mexican border.
The case statement alleged that Ashraful confessed that he works as a middleman sending people to the US through South American country Paraguay. He confessed that an immigration officer at Shahjalal International Airport helps him in human trafficking in exchange for money.
Michael Lee in the case statement alleges that Mofizur and Ashraful charge huge amounts of money to send people to different countries illegally. They applied for the US visa to facilitate illegal human trafficking. They also revealed information about their two associates named Mohammad Jaman and Bhasani. A person named Mohammad Nur Alam is the lynchpin of the gang.
Counter Terrorism and Transnational Criminal (CTTC) of police has been given charge of investigating the case.
CTTC’s deputy commissioner Jashim Uddin told Prothom Alo that the process to bring the case to CTTC from the Gulshan police station has begun.