Myanmar repatriates 144 illegal migrants

Some 144 human trafficking victims in Bangladesh were sent home on Wednesday, two days after being repatriated from Myanmar.

On Monday, the Myanmar Border Guard Police handed 150 trafficking victims on to the Border Guard Bangladesh. The migrants, who were rescued on 21 May by the Myanmar navy as they made their way by boat to Malaysia, were preliminarily identified as Bangladeshi.

Authorities later identified two of the migrants as Rohingyas from Myanmar, while another was also suspected of being of being from the ethnic group. Three more of the migrants were arrested, two of whom were suspected fugitives and another, Uzzal Hossein, a suspected trafficker.

The six detainees were passed on to the Cox’s Bazar Sadar Model Police Station in Bangladesh. The deputy commissioner at the station, Mohammad Ali Hossain, said that 120 victims had been sent home in buses.

Meanwhile, 24 of the migrants were identified as minors between the ages of 15 and 17. They were passed on to the Bangladesh Red Cross Society (BRCS), who then began procedures to repatriate the victims. Volunteers from the BRCS were to accompany each of the youths home.