by Naimul Karim | @Naimonthefield | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Tuesday, 5 February 2019 01:00 GMT
Anti-trafficking groups fear human trafficking routes to southeast Asia through Bay of Bengal are being used to smuggle increasingly desperate Rohingya refugees out of Bangladesh.
Tuesday, 5 February 2019 01:00 GMT
Anti-trafficking groups fear human trafficking routes to southeast Asia through Bay of Bengal are being used to smuggle increasingly desperate Rohingya refugees out of Bangladesh.
COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Feb 5 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In a shelter made of plastic sheets and bamboo next to a reeking stream in the world's largest refugee settlement, Rohingya Nazma Akter recalled how her daughter was trafficked seven months ago.
Rashida, 17, was picked up next to a health clinic in a camp in southeast Bangladesh by a man who had been courting her by phone for sometime while her mother visited the doctor.
The man, however, turned out to be a trafficker.
Two days later Rashida was rescued by the police at Jashore, a regional hub for sex trafficking about 500 km (310 miles) north of the camps near to Bangladesh's border with India.
It has been 18 months since more than 730,000 mainly Muslim Rohingya fled persecution in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar and set up camps across the border in a coastal district about 40 km (25 miles) south of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh's top tourist location.
The camps, sprawled over about 6,000 acres - just under half the size of Manhattan - have become more organised but recent police activity suggested the risk of being trafficked has increased due to the promise of work and better lives.
In Focus: Life for the Rohingya in the world’s largest refugee camp
For there are no signs the Rohingya will be able to leave the camps any time soon. Plans for repatriation were put on hold by the Bangladesh government last November amid protests in the camp with a vow no one will be sent back against their will.
"In the middle there were talks about repatriation. Once that slowed down, we noticed an increase in trafficking," said Major Mehedi Hasan, company commander of Bangladesh's elite police force Rapid Action Batallion (RAB).
Latest police records showed that on Jan. 30, police at Jashore rescued five Rohingya girls and one boy, all teenagers, from being trafficked into India.
Six days earlier RAB officers rescued 11 Rohingya Muslims from Chittagong, a major coastal city and financial centre in southeast Bangladesh about 170 km from the camps.
Last November, law enforcement agencies rescued 57 Rohingya refugees from Malaysia-bound boats on three different occasions.
Anti-trafficking groups fear the human trafficking routes to southeast Asia through the Bay of Bengal, which became active around 2010, are now being used to smuggle increasingly desperate Rohingya refugees out of Bangladesh.
Rashida, 17, was picked up next to a health clinic in a camp in southeast Bangladesh by a man who had been courting her by phone for sometime while her mother visited the doctor.
The man, however, turned out to be a trafficker.
Two days later Rashida was rescued by the police at Jashore, a regional hub for sex trafficking about 500 km (310 miles) north of the camps near to Bangladesh's border with India.
It has been 18 months since more than 730,000 mainly Muslim Rohingya fled persecution in Buddhist-dominated Myanmar and set up camps across the border in a coastal district about 40 km (25 miles) south of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh's top tourist location.
The camps, sprawled over about 6,000 acres - just under half the size of Manhattan - have become more organised but recent police activity suggested the risk of being trafficked has increased due to the promise of work and better lives.
In Focus: Life for the Rohingya in the world’s largest refugee camp
For there are no signs the Rohingya will be able to leave the camps any time soon. Plans for repatriation were put on hold by the Bangladesh government last November amid protests in the camp with a vow no one will be sent back against their will.
"In the middle there were talks about repatriation. Once that slowed down, we noticed an increase in trafficking," said Major Mehedi Hasan, company commander of Bangladesh's elite police force Rapid Action Batallion (RAB).
Latest police records showed that on Jan. 30, police at Jashore rescued five Rohingya girls and one boy, all teenagers, from being trafficked into India.
Six days earlier RAB officers rescued 11 Rohingya Muslims from Chittagong, a major coastal city and financial centre in southeast Bangladesh about 170 km from the camps.
Last November, law enforcement agencies rescued 57 Rohingya refugees from Malaysia-bound boats on three different occasions.
Anti-trafficking groups fear the human trafficking routes to southeast Asia through the Bay of Bengal, which became active around 2010, are now being used to smuggle increasingly desperate Rohingya refugees out of Bangladesh.
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