Three more human trafficking routes identified in Chittagong

Police have identified near Banshkhali Upazila in Chittagong three more areas, besides Cox’s Bazar, which are used as human trafficking route.

Chittagong Bureaubdnews24.com
Published : 2 June 2015, 01:51 PM
Updated : 2 June 2015, 01:51 PM

The areas are Upazila’s three coastal unions--  Chhanua, Shekherkhil, and Khankhanabad.

After arresting a human trafficker, Abdur Rajjak, 55, on Monday, Chittagong Superintendent of Police AKM Hafiz Akhter disclosed about the new routes at a press conference.

He said, “Razzak used to gather people from across the country and keep them in his house. From there he used to take them through Chhanua ghat in smaller fishing trawlers and then board them on to the bigger trawlers in the sea.”

Razzak, who was arrested from Banshkhali Upazila's Puinchharhi on Monday night used to control trafficking racket from Chhanua area.

Using similar modus operandi trafficking was also done through Shekherkhil and Khankhanabad areas as well.

After thousands of illegal migrants ended up in camps in Thailand and Malaysia and many others found floating on boats at sea the menace caught international attention.

According to the international news media, most of those floating people are Bangladeshis and Rohingyas from Myanmar.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have cracked down on traffickers, who smuggle people from Bangladesh and Myanmar on boats across the Bay of Bengal.

Law-enforcers in Bangladesh have also started cracking down on human traffickers involved in the trade.

The crackdown led to the arrest of Abdur Razzak.

A press briefing was held at the Chittagong SP’s office where Razzak was present.

However, reporters were not allowed to talk to Razzak directly.

SP Akhter said at the press briefing, Razzak is one of the top human traffickers.

Earlier, he was involved in robbery but of late he had been actively involved in human trafficking in Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar.

During the preliminary interrogation, Razzak confessed to trafficking some 300 people, said the SP.

Four cases under Human Trafficking Prevention Act and two cases of robbery had been filed against him with Banshkhali’s Pekua police station, the SP said.

As to why police failed to stop trafficking, the SP said, “It is not always possible for the police to keep track of hundreds of people from the city and districts who are moving from one place to another.”

However, the SP mentioned that steps were being taken to stop trafficking and cited rescuing of several people, who were about to be trafficked from Chittagong, in the past two years.

In connection with the crime 65 people have been charged in seven cases, he added.

Emphasising the need to make people aware of human trafficking he said people must be told that it was not possible to travel across country without passport and visa.

The press briefing was also attended by Chittagong’s Additional SP (Sadar) Md Shahidullah, ASP (South) Habibur Rahman, and ASP (Special branch) Naimul Hasan.