close
close
  • February 18, 2025
Bangladeshi human trafficking Myanmar | An escape from ‘hell’

Bangladeshi human trafficking Myanmar | An escape from ‘hell’

What started as a promising chance for a better life turned into a harrowing ordeal for Junaeid Hossain Parbez Ariyan, 25, of Narsingdi’s Belabo.

He fell prey to an international human trafficking syndicate and was forced to work for an online fraud ring operating in Myanmar’s Karen State.

Ariyan was among about 300 people, including women, held in at least 10 detention centers near the Thailand-Myanmar border. Thirteen of these victims are Bangladeshis.

The prisoners are subjected to work under inhuman conditions and torture.

On October 18, Ariyan managed to flee from one of those detention centers, which are guarded by armed members of Karen insurgent groups and criminal gangs. He jumped into a river and survived a tough journey through hills and forests.

He returned home on November 14 and recently shared his harrowing experiences with this newspaper.

DREAM TURNS INTO NIGHTMARE

Ariyan previously worked in Dubai’s hospitality sector.

In August he was lured by the promise of a lucrative job as a computer operator in Thailand, with a salary of between $1,200 and $1,500 – twice as much as in Dubai.

Convinced by a real estate agent, Noman, a Dubai expat from Feni, and recruited after an online interview with a Chinese recruiter, Ariyan and four of his Bangladeshi housemates left for Thailand on August 12, hoping for a better life.

Upon arrival in Bangkok, they were transferred to Mae Sot, a Thai city near the border with Myanmar. The six-hour drive ended abruptly when they were transferred into pickup vans, escorted by armed men, and driven through hilly roads and dense forests.

“For the first time we realized that we made a serious mistake,” Ariyan said.

The group then had to cross the Moei River by boat and reached Karen, a region plagued by uprisings.

The victims were taken to a compound run by Chinese syndicates. Their cellphones were confiscated and they were forced at gunpoint to sign contracts requiring them to earn $200,000 each through online scams within 18 months or face long-term slavery.

The prisoners had to work 17 hours a day. Their job was to create fake social media IDs using mobile phone numbers from different countries and befriend targets around the world, posing as attractive women, to scam them.

They would then entice targets to invest in fake e-commerce platforms, thereby misappropriating significant sums of money.

Ariyan said he earned $25,000 alone before he escaped.

Each of the prisoners is given a target to befriend 80 targets per day. Failure to meet the quota resulted in cruel punishments.

“We were beaten, subjected to electric shocks and burned with hot frying pans. Some women underwent even more horrific treatments, such as having to stand for hours with heavy water drums on their shoulders,” Ariyan said.

He said that at one point he won the trust of a Chinese boss, got his cell phone back and secretly told families and relatives about their terrible conditions. They sought the government’s help, but to no avail.

“When I saw no light at the end of the tunnel, I became frustrated and tried to commit suicide several times,” Ariyan said through tears.

A BOLD ESCAPE

On October 18, while escorting a Pakistani victim to a clinic near the Moei River, he saw an opportunity to escape. He jumped into the river despite being shot at by armed guards. After more than 45 minutes of swimming he reached the Thai side of the river.

As the gang members began searching for him, he trekked through hills and forests to escape them before reaching a road after more than eight hours.

“My legs were bleeding from the cuts I sustained while running through the forest. I was so thirsty that I had to drink water from a corn field,” he said.

Weak and dehydrated, he came across a Buddhist monk who helped him contact local authorities.

Ariyan spent weeks in a Thai shelter for human trafficking survivors before being sent home with the help of the Thai government, NGOs and the Bangladesh embassy.

He urged the government to take action to rescue other Bangladeshi victims still trapped in these centres.

OTHER VICTIMS SEEKING GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION

Another victim, Mehedi Hasan Shanto, managed to call his sister from one of those centers about a month ago and requested that the government be contacted to rescue him.

Sonia Akhter Kona, his sister, said they had contacted foreign ministries and foreign welfare ministries asking them to rescue Shanto and others.

Meanwhile, amid the increasing number of such incidents, the expatriate welfare ministry has issued warnings against traveling to Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

The circular highlighted how individuals and organizations lure Bangladeshis with false promises of high-paying jobs, only to lock them up in scam centers.