47 more back home

Forty-seven Bangladeshi trafficking victims, who had been rescued by the Thai authorities from the Andaman Sea last year, returned home from Bangkok yesterday.

A Biman flight carrying them landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 7:50pm, an official of International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.

They were brought back after getting confirmation of their nationality through police verification, said BM Jamal Hossain, director (welfare & MRP) of the foreign ministry.

"They were rescued by the Thai authorities last year. Our mission in Bangkok started the procedure of their repatriation in November," he said.

The Bangladeshis were kept at Thai detention centres after being rescued from the sea, he added.

Officials of the foreign ministry and the IOM received them at the airport.

Among the 47 returnees, 10 hailed from Jessore, nine from Sunamganj, nine from Sirajganj, six from Jhenaidah, two each from Narsingdi, Mymensingh, Meherpur and Cox's Bazar, and one each from Tangail, Faridpur, Shariatpur, Madaripur and Bogra districts, said a press release of Bangladesh Embassy in Bangkok.

"Our government paid their airfares and repatriation cost," said Saida Muna Tasneem, Bangladesh ambassador in Bangkok.

"We are working closely with the Thai authorities to ensure repatriation of 197 more Bangladeshis by the end of June," she added.

The embassy has so far repatriated 872 Bangladeshis, who had been trafficked into Thailand since the end of 2013.

It also sent back 33 Bangladeshis after mass graves were discovered along the Thai-Malaysia border at the beginning of last month. 

The ambassador visited Thailand's Songkhla province for the second time on June 10 and interviewed 117 self-claimed Bangladeshis, most of whom were rescued recently.

The embassy will continue to interview 203 remaining self-claimed Bangladeshis in Thailand for their early repatriation, Tasneem said.