Workers of garment factories stage demonstrations at Tejgaon in the capital on Tuesday, protesting at the workers’ layoff and demanding their dues. — Focus Bangla photo

Twenty Bangladeshi workers who returned from Tanzanian jails being victims of human trafficking on Tuesday urged the government to ensure exemplary punishment of dishonest recruiting agents and help them get compensation.
For justice, they also sought attention of the prime minister to the case they had filed with the Dhaka airport police station against the fraudulent agents under the human trafficking prevention and control act, 2012.
The Tanzania-backed migrants made the call from a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, where they narrated their bitter experience of untold harassments and sufferings on way to South Africa.
The Bangladesh government in collaboration with the MGH, a Chittagong-based shipping company, brought them back from Tanzanian jails on September 21 last after an 11-month imprisonment.
The government also filed a case with the Airport police station under sections 7 and 8 of the human trafficking prevention and control act.
The workers claimed, although there was no provision for bail and arbitration under the law, two of their agents had already obtained bail and they continued to threaten the victims for seeking compensation.
They told reporters that they had to pay Tk 7 to 9 lakh per person to the brokers for sending them to South Africa.
Meanwhile, officials at the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training told New Age that, although the workers had left the country without clearance of the bureau, they already recorded their allegations after calling them in for interviews or talking to them over telephone to prepare a report.
The returnees who were present at the press conference included Billal Hossain, Faruk Howladar, Jahinur, Malek, Ramjan, Masum, Biltu, Kabil, Alauddin, Kalachan, Rassel, and Wahid Howlader.