13 Rohingya women rescued in capital

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday rescued 13 Rohingya women from a house in the capital’s Aftabnagar.

A human trafficking gang had holed them up there for seven months with plans to traffic them abroad, the elite force yesterday said in a press release.

During the drive, the Rab team also arrested two members of the human trafficking gang, seized a huge number of passports, fake birth registration forms, certificates and passport forms, the Rab-3 press release said.

Contacted around 7:30pm yesterday, Rab-3 Commanding Officer Lt Col Rakibul Hasan could not tell the exact number of passports recovered.

The arrestees are Kabir Ahmed (40) and Md Emran (28), both hailing from Cox’s Bazar.

Rab said they arrested Kabir from a rented house in Aftabnagar. He had brought the Rohingya women to Dhaka from the camps in Cox’s Bazar, the press release added.

It said the traffickers were also involved in “managing” Bangladeshi passports for the Rohingya with the help of some unscrupulous passport officials.

Two others members of the gang — arrestee Emran and another named Habib — were tasked with arranging passports for the victims. They also “managed” visas of different countries including Malaysia and UAE for the refugees, the release said, adding, “The Rohingya women are sold to international human trafficking gangs for large sums of money,” said the press release.

Earlier on December 5, Rab-3 members busted a house at Shantipur in South Goran of the capital, and arrested three members of a human trafficking gang from Cox’s Bazar.

During the drive, Rab members rescued five Rohingyas and seized 115 passports — 93 of which were of women — and a huge number of birth certificates.

“Human trafficking has increased alarmingly in recent times. Taking opportunity of the helplessness of Rohingya people, a group of brokers  are trafficking them abroad,”the press release said.

Source: The Daily Star