Tragedy on the high seas

REPORTS by the IOM (International Organization for Migration), indicate that as many as 2,800 migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar have been rescued from the sea and a staggering number of 8,000 are still believed to be stranded at sea.  Contrary to UN conventions that say that a country has an obligation to render humanitarian assistance to those in distress at sea, these countries, namely, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, have sorely resisted boats carrying desperate migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh and push them back to sea until recently when Malaysia and Indonesia have shown some relenting of this stance. Already, two vessels carrying 600 migrants had been turned away in the past week and reports gleaned from BBC say that all these men, women and children adrift at sea, in crammed cargo vessels for several weeks, without food and water are facing imminent death. This is a terrible humanitarian disaster and distinctly different from all other tragedies that occurred in the high seas, beginning from the illegal trafficking of workers to Spain, Italy and Malaysia in 2005. 

The Bangladesh government cannot wash its hands off the responsibility of bringing back these hapless victims of illegal trafficking. The government must resolve the crisis through fruitful discussions with the governments of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia so that they provide temporary shelter to these hapless victims floating on the sea, and assure them that if they are Bangladeshis, they will be repatriated back to Bangladesh. Nobody can deny that the situation has resulted from the administration's neglect, inept handling and total apathy toward illegal human trafficking that had been going on unabated for years in Cox's Bazaar and Teknaf. But the administration has always turned a blind eye to these nefarious activities. Reports have it that despite the MoU reached between the two governments for sending five lakh Bangladeshi workers to Malaysia, the government of Bangladesh could only send seven thousand workers through this arrangement in the last four years. 

The government must realise that it cannot root out this vile trafficking business by killing some 'criminals' in crossfire encounters. Rather it has to catch them alive and know from them about the spread of this vast network and also the big fishes patronising this "slave trade" for years.   

During the last few years, hundreds and thousands of young and unemployed men - mostly from impoverished families, river erosion victims and climate refugees - have taken the routes for Malaysia with dreams of finding better jobs and better means for survival. The saddest part of this trafficking game is that most end up in hell holes, maimed by torture after they are handed over to their Thai or Malaysian bosses for their inability to pay the second round of ransom money. Reports have it that many of them, having escaped from the traffickers, walked through the jungles for months, living on leaves and fruits until they were caught by police after entering Malaysia. 

It is also the get-rich-quick dream which fuels the vast network of travel agents and  brokers, almost all of them fake but notoriously emboldened to run this trafficking business because they enjoy the patronage of a group of law enforcers and political cadres. The smuggling of illegal migrants is a thriving industry. On an average, a few thousand youths are sent illegally to Malaysia and different Middle Eastern countries every year. Most of the brokers and agents are fly-by-night operators having bases in Thailand, Abu Dhabi, Spain and Saudi Arabia.

The going rate for Malaysia, as I learnt from Bangladeshi workers during my two visits to my son-in-law's work place in KL in the recent past, is now about Tk 3 to 3.5 lakh per candidate. Interestingly, these Bangladeshi men made no mention about any hardship they were facing there. 

 The question that necessarily arises is that why are these young men and women, bubbling with hope and ambition, trying to flee the country and jumping on to the high seas that eventually swallow them alive. It is undeniably true that the unstable political situation in the country, closure of once vibrant industries like jute, textile, steel, aluminum and  glass  and consequent lack of  employment opportunities have propelled these youths to flee the country in search of  jobs and better living elsewhere.

The government must provide them with jobs, or business or loans to conduct business.   And if they want to go to these countries, they must go there with adequate training and skills. We have to build skill-development centres in all Upazilas of Bangladesh so that young men and women can work in these countries legally instead of being tricked by fraudsters and conmen. 

Despite all the potential of cheap labour and a vast cohort of labour force, Bangladesh remains perpetually poor. The country is suffering from the poverty of ideas and not of resources. The country is poor entirely due to bad governance. 

The writer is a columnist of The Daily Star. 
E-mail: aukhandk@gmail.com