Migrant activist’s arrest draws flak
Al-Amin Noyon, a migrant rights activist, was arrested and sent to jail on Thursday -- drawing criticisms from the rights advocates.
Metropolitan Magistrate Dilruba Afroz Tithi of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court denied the bail to Noyon, manager of BRAC's Migration Welfare Centre, and issued order for sending him to jail after he was produced before the court.
I am sure there is a strong syndicate working to defame and suppress the rights advocates. The policymakers need to seriously look into the matter so that the innocent is not punished.
Earlier in the day, Banani police arrested him from Dhaka airport in connection with a case filed by Joynal Abedin Joy, chairman of Bangladesh Migrants' Foundation (BMF), with the Anti-Human Trafficking Offence Tribunal on June 6.
The accused also include Md Shafiqul Islam, 36, a returnee migrant from Tangail, and NGO Shikkha Shastha Unnayan Karzakram (SHISUK)'s executive director Sakiul Millat Morshed.
According to the case document, Noyon, who was an employee of SHISUK, and Morshed, instigated Shafiqul to file the case against Joy, recruiting agency Morning Sun Enterprise's owner Md Rokonuzzaman and four others under Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking act, 2012, in early 2014.
Kibria Hasan, who was sub-inspector of Airport Police Station and was investigating the case, told The Daily Star on January 6, 2014, that four recruiting agencies -- Meghna Trade International, Morning Sun Enterprise, East Bengal Overseas and Idea International -- alongside BMF, were accused of labour trafficking to Iraq.
Early 2013, these agencies had sent 27 workers to Iraq charging about Tk 4 lakh from each for jobs, but after their arrival in Iraq, they were left confined to an accommodation facility in Najaf, without pay and good food, Kibria had said.
Following repeated pleas of their relatives, 11 workers returned home early 2014 and filed the case that led to the arrest of Joy and Nasir Khan of Meghna Trade.
Joy claimed the case filed against him in 2014 has been proved false.
Advocate Noman Hossain Talukder, who moved for Noyon's bail on Thursday, said Noyon was an employee of SHISUK and supported the helpless migrant workers, who were sent to Iraq by the recruiting agencies and brokers but were not provided jobs.
Noyon did not file the case against Joy or anybody else. Therefore, the case brought against him is baseless, Noman said.
Contacted yesterday, Morshed, who has not been arrested, said the case of sending workers to Iraq was clearly a case of trafficking in the name of labour migration.
"If the recruiting agencies claim that all the documents for sending the workers to Iraq were right, then the question is why they were unemployed and confined there for 10 months," he said.
Morshed said if there was nothing wrong with the workers, why the Bangladesh embassy would help their repatriation. If they were working well, why couldn't they send remittance home, he asked.
Shariful Hasan, associate director of BRAC Migration Programme, said BRAC will legally fight for Noyon.
He said Noyon, who himself was a victim of labour trafficking to Malaysia in 2007-08, has been working for the migrants' welfare since his return home in 2008.
"There is nothing sadder than this if true migrant rights activist is penalised for good works. I am sure, there is a strong syndicate working to defame and suppress the rights advocates. The policymakers need to seriously look into the matter so that the innocent is not punished."
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