At least 38 people are feared dead after an overcrowded fishing trawler, carrying Malaysia-bound illegal migrants, capsized in the Kutubdia channel of the Bay of Bengal in the early hours yesterday.
Rescuers managed to bring ashore 42 people alive including six suspected human traffickers, while later in the day the sunken vessel was also located and dragged towards the shores of Kutubdia island.
Although it is common for a large number of people to seek illegal passage to Malaysia through marine routes from Chittagong every year, such large scale accidents at sea are uncommon in the bay.
Quoting rescued victims, Kutubdia police station Officer-in-Charge Ongshuth Whoyai said the 30-feet long Malaysia-bound trawler, FV Idris, capsized at the southwestern part of Kutubdia channel with about 80 people on board at around 5am.
Receiving the information, Coast Guard ships Towhid and Tanvir along with four metal shark boats, and Bangladesh Navy ships Oporajeyo and Otondro rushed to the spot and rescued 31 people including four suspected traffickers, said Bangladesh Coast Guard (East) Zonal Commander Captain Shahidul Islam.
Meanwhile, Maheshkhali police rescued 11 more people including two suspected traffickers from Matarbari channel, said Maheshkhali OC Alamgir Hossain.
As of filing this report at 9pm, rescue efforts were still going on at the site of the trawler capsize, while the Coast Guard said they would continue searching for survivors throughout the night.
Six of the rescued migrants were admitted to the Kutubdia Upazila Health Complex in critical conditions, said Kutubdia Upazila Health Officer Dr Mohammad Sahabuddin; but he assured that they were now out of danger.
The rescue teams also traced the trawler at around 3pm and brought it near the shore of Kutubdia island an hour later.
According to the rescued victims, who were mostly from Jessore, Bogra, Madaripur, Narayanganj and other northern districts, the FV Idris was not the initial vessel used in their illegal journey to Malaysia.
At first, the traffickers reportedly had around 50 people climb into a different larger vessel at Chittagong’s Majhirghat and started their journey at 11pm on Wednesday. Around 30 more people were picked up from Chittagong’s Banshkhali and Cox’s Bazar’s Pekua, before the vessel arrived at Kutubdia channel at dawn.
Later, all the illegal migrants were crammed into FV Idris, which soon began to sway heavily because of the rough waves and eventually started to sink.
“After swimming for about four hours, Coast Guard personnel rescued us,” said 30-year old Abul Kalam, one of those rescued from the scene.
Another of the rescued, 27-year-old Mohammad Shahadat, said he gave traffickers around Tk1 lakh for going to Malaysia and to secure a job there.
“We were kept in a congested place in the trawler [by the traffickers] and suffered from a shortage of drinking water,” he said.
Police sources at Kutubdia and Maheshkhali said the suspected traffickers who were rescued from the water are Obaidul Haq, Nur Mohammad, Mohammad Ismail Mohammad Yiasin, Tayeb Hossain and Mohammad Rasel.
However, the suspects claimed to be innocent victims who only wanted to go to Malaysia like the others. Two of the suspects – Tayeb and Rasel – said they were cooks in the trawler and helped the boatmen sail.
8 bodies recovered
The bodies of eight fortune seekers, who went missing after an overcrowded fishing trawler, carrying Malaysia-bound illegal migrants, capsized in the Bay of Bengal on Thursday, have been recovered on Friday.
Kutubdia police station Officer-in-Charge Onshu Thoay told the Dhaka Tribune that a joint team of Navy, Coast Guard and local rescuers recovered the bodies around 12 noon.
Coast Guard Public Relation Officer Lt Commander M Rajibul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune: "We have pulled the bodies out after searching the rescued trawler and the areas around the point where the trawler sank. Five bodies were inside the trawler while three were in the Bay water."
Trafficking through sea routes
According to a report by the police headquarters’ Anti-Human Trafficking Special Committee, a total 3,793 people were rescued from Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong over the last five years, while around 15,000-20,000 people were trafficked to Thailand and Malaysia in the past decade alone.
The report also found that human traffickers were most active in 60 points of coastal areas under Patuakhali, Barguna, Satkhira, Jhalakati, Khulna, Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar, while their agents were influential in 41 districts.
The committee also observed that human trafficking tendency reached the peak during November to April as the sea was more calm in this period.
In a major operation on November 17, 2013, the Bangladesh Navy captured a 25-metre long Myanmar-flag-bearing fishing trawler from the Bay of Bengal, which was being used to illegally send 625 people to Malaysia.
Friday 30 January 2015
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2015/jan/30/38-illegal-migrants-feared-dead-trawler-capsizes
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2015/jan/30/8-bodies-recovered-bay
0 comments:
Post a Comment