Bring back 125 Bangladeshis

A flag meeting to bring back 125 Bangladeshi trafficking victims, who were rescued by Myanmar authorities, began today between Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Myanmar immigration department.

A 20-member delegation of the BGB led by Lt Col Md Robiul Islam, director of 17 BGB Battalion of Cox’s Bazar went to Myanmar to join the meeting around 10:30am, reports our Cox’s Bazar correspondent.

The BGB delegation and Myanmar Immigration and National Registration Department are holding the meeting at Myanmar’s Dekibuniya BGP camp near Bandarban’s Ghumdoom border in Bangladesh.

The 125 rescued people, including over 20 children, hailed from 14 districts in Bangladesh.

In order to verify their nationalities for the second time, police will send them to a temporary camp at the Cox's Bazar Cultural Centre after bringing them back home, Tofael Ahmed, additional superintendent of police of Cox's Bazar, told our local correspondent.

The Myanmar Navy on May 21 and 29 rescued 208 and 727 fortune seekers from their territorial waters and claimed that all of them were from Bangladesh.

According to Asif Munir of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 501 Bangladeshi trafficking victims have so far been repatriated from Myanmar in four phases since last June 8 while some 325 Bangladeshis are on the waiting list to return home.