By Mainul Islam Khan
DHAKA, Bangladesh
A group of 39 Bengali migrants detained after being trafficked by sea to Thailand two months ago have returned to Bangladesh.
Foreign ministry official Jamal Hossain told reporters the migrants were received at Dhaka airport on Thursday after Bangladeshi authorities cross-checked their identities.
Local newspaper The Daily Star quoted the Bangladeshi ambassador to Thailand saying that they are checking the nationalities of 470 more people claiming to be Bangladeshi, in order to repatriate them.
According to the United Nation Human Rights Commissioner, tens of thousands of Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar have been trafficked to Southeast Asia this year.
The international human trafficking ring was exposed in May when mass graves containing the bodies of Rohingya and Bangladeshis were found in the jungles of southern Thailand and then, days later, hundreds of migrants turned up on the shores of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
