By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka
A total of 155 Bangladeshi trafficking victims, who were rescued by Myanmar authorities on May 29, were brought back home through southeastern Cox’s Bazar tourist city from the neighbouring country yesterday after a flag meeting between their border guards.
The flag meeting was held between Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Myanmar’s Border Guard Police (BGP) along the Ghundum border point in the morning, said Tofail Ahmed, additional
superintendent of police, Cox’s Bazar.
Earlier, a team of BGB had gone to the bordering area to bring the Bangladeshi
nationals back.
Commanding Officer of BGB Battalion Lt Col Rabiul Islam led the eight-member BGB team while Saw Naing, Deputy Director of Immigration and National Registration Department led the Myanmar BGP team.
Among the rescued victims - 24 hail from Sirajganj, 11 from Chuadanga, two from Satkhira, 15 from Madaripur, four each from Faridpur, Kushtia, Joypurhat and Magura, 12 from Pabna, 41 from Narayanganj, 12 from Jhenidah, nine from Jessore, five from Comilla and eight from Mymensingh
districts.
Tofail Ahmed said all the rescued victims were handed over to the local administration.
Later, they were taken to Cultural Centre of Cox’s Bazar town and then sent back to their respective villages after interrogation and completion of all necessary formalities.
Earlier, on May 29, the Myanmar navy rescued 727 migrants from Myanmar sea territory.
Later, the Myanmar authorities sent a list of 528 people who intended to return to Bangladesh, to the authorities here. The government then identified 155 people, out of 528, as Bangladeshi nationals after the police verification.
On May 21, Myanmar rescued two boats carrying over 200 people in its water territories with its officials claiming all of them to be from Bangladesh.
Among them, 187 Bangladeshi trafficking victims were brought back home from Myanmar after separate flag meetings between the border forces of the two countries on June 8 and June 21 respectively.
The Bangladeshis were reportedly going to Malaysia and Thailand through sea illegally.