facebooktwittertelegramwhatsapp
copy short urlprintemail
+ A
A -
webmaster
Dhaka: Bangladeshi authorities have prevented dozens of Rohingya Muslims from being trafficked to Malaysia by boat from refugee camps in south-eastern Bangladesh, officials said on Saturday.
The coastguard intercepted seven women and 10 men who had fled refugee camps in Saint Martin’s Island in the Bay of Bengal on a boat set to make its way to Malaysia late on Friday, coastguard official Fayezul Islam Mandal said.
Five suspected human traffickers were also detained at the scene, Mandal added.
Police officer Pradip Kumar Das said the Rohingya refugees were sent back to their respective camps.
The traffickers use the prospect of employment to lure the refugees to Malaysia and arrange passage by boat via the Bay of Bengal in exchange for money.
Acting on a tip-off, police separately rescued 67 other Rohingya refugees, including 29 women and 15 children, gathered at Ujantia jetty in Cox’s Bazar, officer Zakir Hossain Bhuyian said. (DPA)
The refugees told the police that four middlemen brought them to the jetty from Kutupalong camp by bus to start the journey after midnight Friday, the officer said.
“The refugees were rescued only an hour ahead of their journey was scheduled to begin,” Bhuyan said, adding that the traffickers managed to flee the scene.
Bangladesh is hosting more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims refugees displaces by the military in neighbouring Myanmar in temporary shelters made mostly of bamboo shafts and tarpaulins.
Nearly 750,000 of them crossed the border after Myanmar launched a military crackdown in northern Rakhine state in 2017.
copy short url   Copy
19/05/2019
473