Nightmare voyage

He had wanted to go to Malaysia for a better job. But he ended up falling into the hands of human traffickers who sold him thrice before he was rescued. He endured inhuman physical and mental torture in a boat for around two months at sea.

"We were sold the way cows and goats are sold in bazaars. Some were sold five times. We were treated as animals," said Milon Hossain, a resident of Khoyran village under Sujanagar upazila in Pabna.

The 35-year-old man was among the 150 victims repatriated from Myanmar on June 8. Three of them are Rohingya, according to police sources.

Milon and four other victims of the same upazila reached their village homes on Thursday. The other victims are Babu Ali, Nazmul Hossain, Haque Mallik and Alhaz Hossain. Aged between 30 and 35 years, they are residents of Khoyran and Vaina villages of Sujanagar.

Milon, who used to farm lands in his village, had come to Manikganj about four months ago for a better life. He found a job at a brick field in March and met a man there, named Baser Mallick who also hailed from Pabna.

Baser lured him into taking the perilous sea voyage. "He even told us that we would not have to pay. I agreed and left for Malaysia on March 20 without informing my family members," Milon said.

They reached Chittagong on March 20. Next day Baser, who was basically a trafficker, took Milon to Teknaf and handed him over to another trafficker. This trafficker took him on a boat, along with some other people, to an Island, Milon recalled.

The trafficker then handed Milon and the others over to another trafficker who carried them on a trawler to another larger trawler waiting in the sea waters.

"This is the ship [trawler] that will take you people to Malaysia," he quoted one of the traffickers as saying. There were around 250 people on board.

Milon said the nightmare began once they got on the larger trawler. "It was like a hell," he said.

The traffickers started torturing them and forced them to contact their families for ransom. "They demanded Tk 1 lakh from my family," he said.

His father managed Tk 40,000 and paid the traffickers through b-Kash. "But we were tortured and kept unfed," Milon said, adding they were given a half-plate of rice with dried chillies for the whole day. "In the evening, they gave us puffed rice," he said.

"We were given a small amount of water. Whenever we cried for food or water, they beat us. Many of us fell sick," he said.

He said before boarding the larger trawler, most of them had no idea that they were being trafficked.

The main man in the trawler, whom Milon dubbed as Hamid dalal, told them that they were sold every time they were handed over. "He [Hamid] informed us that we're sold at different prices in different places. In one place we were sold at Tk 5,000 while in another place at Tk 10,000."

M

ilon said the traffickers tried to reach Malaysia through different routes, but to no avail. Finally, as they were drifting off near the Myanmar coast, the Myanmarese Navy caught them. They were kept in a camp in Myanmar and sent back home on June 8.

On reaching home, Milon filed a case on Thursday with Sujanagar police station, accusing Baser Mallick.

"Baser is the local agent of a human trafficking gang," Habibur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Sujanagar Police Station, told The Daily Star yesterday.

The trafficker went into hiding after media brought the issue of human trafficking to the fore, he said.

The OC said four other youths from another village of Sujanagar were also lured into the traffickers' trap, but they are yet to get any news of them. He said the family members of these victims have already paid the traffickers over Tk 9 lakh.

The four are: Saddam, Bacchu, Baki and Hanif. Aged between 25 and 30 years, they were related to one another.

Visiting the houses of the victims yesterday, this correspondent found them reeling with deep sorrow and uncertainty.

Saddam's brother Rony Hossain said his brother along with three of his cousins went to Dhaka for earning a living, but they also fell straight into the same traffickers' trap. They have been missing since mid April, he added.

"The traffickers phoned us and told that they confined my brother in a trawler and demanded a huge amount of ransom. They also let our brothers talk over the phone," Rony said.

Each of the four families managed Tk 2.30 lakh and sent it to the traffickers in the first week of May, he said.

"But after paying the money, we could not connect to our brothers. We could not know anything about their fate," he said.

The OC of Sujanagar said another case was filed in this connection.