Human traffickers are using a new route from the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) to Malaysia, via Manipur and Mizoram in India and then through Chin state and Yangon of Myanmar, according to the sources in home ministry. It has been discovered that a number of Bangladeshi citizens, many of whom are Buddhists, are involved in human trafficking through the new route. Some of these traffickers have been jailed in Myanmar, the sources said.

The Bangladesh embassy in Myanmar has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to take necessary steps in this regard to stop human trafficking, the sources claimed.

Manjurul Karim Khan Chowdhury, Bangladesh ambassador to Myanmar, sent a letter recently to the secretary of the Security Services Division of the home ministry.

“Human traffickers have found a new route to traffic people to Malaysia. First, they are taken to India (Mizoram and Manipur) and then to Myanmar. From Myanmar, attempts are made to travel to Malaysia," says the letter.

The letter also says that the emergence of this Bangladesh–India–Myanmar –Malaysia route could spell trouble for Bangladesh. Both Chin state and Sagaing region have borders with India, whereas Chin state also shares its border with Bangladesh.

“The porous borders and difficult terrain may make it difficult for border forces to monitor illegal trespassing,” the letter mentions.

 “If the border points go unchecked, use of this route by human traffickers will increase in future, which will dent the image of Bangladesh,” the letter adds.

According to the ambassador’s letter, “At least 15 ‘alleged’ Bangladeshis who entered Myanmar have been detained by the Myanmar authorities. The detained persons informed the consular team of the Bangladesh embassy that they intended to go to Malaysia via the Yangon–Meyik route to find jobs.”

“Some of the detainees revealed that they entered Myanmar by crossing the border from Moreh in India. Some detainees disclosed that they had promised to pay Tk. 1.2 lakh per person to a

Buddhist monk in Rangamati. Others claimed to have paid Tk. 50,000 each to an Indian monk who travelled between India and Bangladesh for this purpose,” the letter says.

In the letter, the Bangladesh ambassador said the detainees were ethnic minority Buddhists from the Chattogram Hill Tracts. According to sources, human traffickers also use the old route from Cox’s Bazar via Renong in Thailand, which is close to the Malaysian border, to traffic people to Malaysia through the waterways.

 A number of Thai trawlers enter the Karnaphuli estuary in Chittagong to traffic humans from Bangladesh to Malaysia.

Sometimes the Coast Guard challenges the trawlers and tries to detain them. But they are unable to do much in the absence of proper laws.

When asked about the trafficking, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told The Independent that the authorities had already been asked to arrest those involved in human trafficking. “We will seek cooperation of the countries concerned to stop the trafficking,” he said. Law enforcement agencies have sometimes arrested people in fishing trawlers in the deep sea that were headed for Malaysia.