Cox'sbazar: The Home Ministry of Bangladesh has ordered law enforcement agencies to arrest 36 people who are suspected of involvement in trafficking local people and Burmese citizens to Malaysia and Thailand via sea from Bangladesh's southern district of Cox's Bazar, according to a report of the independent newspaper today.
The home ministry ordered the agencies to arrest the suspects upon receipt of a report from an intelligence agency recently, home ministry sources said.
The names and location of the traffickers identified in the report were published by the newspaper, with most of the traffickers being from Cox's Bazar District. 24 of the suspects have been involved in human trafficking to different countries, including Malaysia and Thailand, for the last five to ten years. Two of the identified suspects are patrons of the traffickers and ten have engine boats used for trafficking, sources added.
Many people have died while traveling to Malaysia and India via sea, but some local people and Muslims from Arakan in burma have been forced to go to Malaysia with the traffickers.
According to the report, a number of Bangladeshi and Burmese people were arrested by law enforcement agencies in Malaysia and Thailand and they are now in different jails in those countries.
On 25 December, 23 people, including 10 Burmese citizens, were arrested by the Bangladesh coast guard on St. Martin Island in Teknaf Township while they were preparing to go to Malaysia by a trawler.
