Teknaf, Bangladesh: Bangladeshi police rescued sixty boatpeople, primarily Rohingya and Bangladeshi, on October 31. The travelers were attempting to get to Malaysia with a rickety trawler after leaving from Bangladesh, according to a police official.
On October 30 at around 1 pm, an old fishing trawler with 60 passengers departed for Malaysia from Cox’s Bazar Ghat. After sailing seven hours from Cox’s Bazar, it reached the offshore of Bahar Sara Shamlapur, a fishing village, at around 8:30 am, and anchored in the deep sea because of water entering into the trawler, said a returnee from the trip who declined to be named.
The passengers became frightened because of the shaky condition of the trawler. At this moment, the Dalal or Maji (leader) jumped into the sea and fled. However, one of the passengers steered the trawler to the seashore of Baharsara Shamlapur, and reached land at about 9 am.”
After receiving information, a group of police led by Sub-Inspector Masrul Haque from Bahar Sara Police Station went to the spot where police seized the trawler and also arrested 25 of the 60 people. The other 35 passengers fled from the scene.
“If the passengers were not arrested, they would try to go again to Malaysia by sea route, and may again face difficulties, so we rescued them from the risky journey,” said a police officer from Shalarpur.
The arrestees are have been identified as Md. Ayas (22), Abul Fayas (17), Seraz (22), Rofique Ullah (25), Abdul Haque (20), Nurul Boshor (20), Md.Ibrahim (24), Abdul Rashid (25), Salim Ullah (23), Anayet Ullah (15), Zoina ( 22), Sayedur Rahaman (20), Rahamat Ullah (26), Md. Amin (25), Mohamed Nabi ( 21), Ayub Khan (30), Md. Ismail (20), Md. Imran (22), Nabi Hussain (40), Md. Tayub (40), Zamir Hussain (23), Hussain Zohar (23), Abdul Gafar (20), Sayed Noor (22), and Azim Ullah (25), according to police.
The Dalal (agent) had collected the passengers from inside Arakan State and Bangladesh. Most of the travelers were Rohingya.
“Most of the boatpeople are young. They want to leave their motherland because of so many kinds of persecutions and movement restrictions which have made them jobless,” said a youth who asked not to be named.
One of the boatpeople named Ahmed who returned to Bangladesh said, “I gave Taka 30,000 to the agent before leaving for Malaysia, and would have paid another Taka 70,000 after arriving in Malaysia.”
Another returnee said, “Dalals or Mazis have changed their route to Malaysia. Earlier, they boarded passengers from Shapuri Dip, Cox’s Bazar, Moshkhali, and Chittagong, but now they board passengers from Patuakali to evade the authorities.”
