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| Illegals' boat caught by Border Guards Bangladesh. |
Between October 27 and November 7, two overloaded
Malaysia-bound boats, which had sailed from Bangladesh with 245 people aboard,
sank near the Bangladesh port of Teknaf.
International media reported that the people on the boats had
been Rohingya refugees. But after interrogating 28 people who were rescued,
Bangladeshi security agents found that almost half the people were Bangladeshis,
not ethnic Rohingyas.
"Since the issue of the Rohingya interests the global
community and some Rohingyas were on those two boats, the international media
picked up the story. But many incorrectly reported that everyone on the boats
were Rohingya refugees," said Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Zahid Hasan,
head of Border Guard Bangladesh.
In relation to media coverage, he told DW, "It was
nowhere reported that almost half of the people on the boats were Bangladeshis.
These days on the Malaysia-bound boats sailing from Bangladesh, 60 to 65
percent of the people are Bangladeshis. They are not Rohingyas."
Rohingya sea route
Stateless Rohingya refugees, who had fled Myanmar to
Bangladesh, took boats to reach Thailand, from where they travelled overland to
Malaysia. "Soon, some enterprising Rohingyas set up an international human
trafficking network to transport desperate people from Bangladesh to Malaysia,
following the same route," said Bangladesh-based Salimullah.
Rohingya from Myanmar have increasingly sought asylum in
Bangladesh in recent months. "By using the sea-and-land route, traffickers
helped Rohingya migrants reach Malaysia where they began working as illegal
immigrants."
But Thailand has barred the boat people from its territory
since 2010. So a number of boats from Bangladesh now land directly on
Malaysia's west coast.
Sail now, pay later
Between October and March, when the sea in the region is
calmer, scores of boats operated by traffickers set out from Bangladesh's
coasts, carrying hundreds of people illegally headed for Malaysia.
"Rohingyas mostly from Cox's Bazar are heading for
Malaysia on this illegal route. But now using their wider network, the agents
are also managing to push desperate young [Bangladeshi] men from far-off
Chuadanga, Jhinaidaha, Jessore, Khulna and other districts on to the
boats," said Hassan.
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| Fake Rohingyas (Bangladeshis) caught in Thailand. |
"One willing to immigrate to a Gulf country or Malaysia
has to spend at least 250,000 takas (2,400 euros). It's a huge amount for an
average Bangladeshi. But an agent charges as low as 15,000 takas (140 euros)
for one ticket on a boat," said Nayan, who reports on the trafficking
network.
The rest of the fee, "usually between 100,000 and
130,000 takas," Nayan explained, could often be paid off in installments
after the refugee landed a job in his new country.
In poor, densely populated Bangladesh, young men longed to
escape to other countries to find work, with the Arab region a preferred
destination, Abul Kashem Bhuian, a union council chairman in Bharuakhali, south
Bangladesh, explained.
Jobs plentiful in
Malaysia
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| An illegal worker in a Malaysian oil-palm plantation. |
"So Malaysia has now become their favorite
destination," said Bhuian, who, himself has relatives working in Malaysia.
Golam Murtaza, who undertook a 2-week journey across the sea and reached
Malaysia in January, said the country had a massive manpower shortage in its
plantation, agriculture, construction and other sectors. Bangladeshis, therefore,
easily found jobs there.
"Of the 126 people on my boat from Bangladesh, 70 of
them were Bangladeshis. In this town where I am working, there are more than
500 Bangladeshis. Most of them came here via the same sea route. I have many
friends in Bangladesh who are getting restless to take the same route to reach
Malaysia," said Murtaza, 23, who is from Bangladesh's Magura district.
An agent in Bangladesh told DW she had a long line of
Bangladeshis waiting to go to Malaysia: "I have already sent more than 200
Bangladeshis from our district to Malaysia in the past two sailing seasons. At
least 150 young Bangladeshi men are waiting to take our boats in the coming
weeks," a Cox's Bazar-based agent, known by her pseudonym of Rashida, told
DW.
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Colonel Mohamad Hasan
from the Bangladesh Border Guards was frustrated with International media and the
Burmese Exile media for not describing them as Bangladeshis but the so-called
Rohingyas. At least 60% to 65% of all these people sailing from Bangladesh to Malaysia
in rickety boats are Bangladeshi nationals, insisted strongly the honest Colonel.
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| Burmese exile media groups. |
Finally the Bangladeshis
are slowly fessing up that the so-called Rohingyas and the Bengali-Muslims are
the same and one people from Bangladesh. They look the same, dress the same,
speak the same exact language with same accent, and follow the same school of
fundamentalist suni-Islam.)
