A total of 114 Bangladeshi human trafficking survivors have returned home from Libya by coordinating with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
A special flight carrying the returnees arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 8:15 am on Thursday, confirmed Zia Palash, additional superintendent (media) of the Airport Armed Police Battalion (APBn).
Last year, local brokers (traffickers’ allies) sent these survivors to Tripoli, the capital city of Libya using Malaysia, Dubai, Oman as transit routes with visitor visas.
However, they were detained by the Libyan law enforcers in Tripoli and some of them even served up to nine months in prison. Later, the IOM facilitated their return to Bangladesh.
Since 2015, a total of 2,942 Bangladeshi migrants have returned from Libya through the program, which is a part of the larger EU-IOM joint initiative for migrant protection and reintegration.
On May 27, 2020, at least 30 migrants including 26 Bangladeshi were shot and killed at a smuggling warehouse in the Libyan town of Mizdah.
