More 144 migrants returned from Libya
Staff Reporter :
About 144 more irregular Bangladeshi migrants returned home from Libya.
A chartered flight of Buraq Air carrying them landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 4:00 am on Friday.
The irregular migrants were brought back with the help of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as the efforts of the Bangladesh Embassy in Libya.
With the latest figure, a total of 1,390 Bangladeshi nationals, who were held in detention centers and isolated places in Tripoli and Benghazi cities, returned home so far from July 2023.
Mostafa Jamil Khan, Director (Welfare) of the Finance Ministry, met the returnees at the airport and requested them to share their bitter experiences with others and make everyone aware to avoid going abroad through illegal ways.
He asked them for advising people of going abroad with proper ways.
Meanwhile, a recent case study showed that about 79pc of the Bangladeshi migrants were tortured and 68pc held captive in Libya.
This result found after conducting survey among 557 Bangladeshi migrants gone Libya through illegal ways. Only 11pc of them got job there.
The study conducted by the BRAC Migration Programme revealed that human trafficking from Bangladesh remains a significant concern, with deceptive tactics used by the traffickers and exploitation of vulnerable individuals seeking better opportunities abroad.
The data provided crucial information about the regions within Bangladesh from where the survivors were trafficked.
The highest number of respondents hailed from Faridpur (6.46pc), followed by Cumilla (3.41pc) and Noakhali (3.41pc).
When asked about the circumstances of their trafficking, a significant proportion (60.32pc respondents) disclosed that the traffickers had manipulated their guardians with false promises of lucrative job opportunities and higher income from foreign countries.
In terms of the route taken to reach Libya, which emerged as the primary destination country for the trafficked survivors in the study, the most commonly used was the ‘Dhaka-Dubai-Egypt-Libya’ (21.15pc) route.
Alarmingly, the study also highlighted that the vast majority of respondents (551) (88.51pc) did not receive the promised job upon arriving at their destination, leaving them deceived and vulnerable.
Only 36 (11.49pc) respondents confirmed that they actually obtained the job.
They suggested that urgent and sustained efforts are required to combat this heinous crime, raise awareness, provide support to trafficked survivors, and strengthen preventive measures.
