Seven hapless souls perished in the sea,
Mocking the much trumpeted development story.
Another tragedy struck off the Italian coast. And 7 Bangladeshis froze to death in that tragedy. 280 illegal immigrants including 7 Bangladeshis tried to cross the Mediterranean by boat to reach their dream destination, Europe. In the middle of that fateful journey, 3 perished because of extreme cold while 4 more later died in hospital after they had been rescued by Italian coast guard1.
The tragedy took place at a moment when government is boasting its economic indicators. This tragedy belies the much trumpeted success stories. Meanwhile, Henley And Partners two weeks ago in its passport index raised the rank of Bangladesh passport by 5 notches. This tragedy laid bare the ground reality and ridiculed the improvement made in passport ranking.
Perilous boat ride by Bangladeshis in the Mediterranean has been going on for a long time. I penned several pieces on this. Unfortunately little progress has been made and govt did little to stem the flow. Last year,a boat capsize off the Tunisian coast killed 17 Bangladeshis1.
Tragedies after tragedies struck on foreign shores,but we seldom see local culprits are brought to book and justice is delivered to victims. There were reports of detaining few lower rank criminals ,but hardly any big criminal or public official was sentenced.Meanwhile, foreign governments were quick to take actions in such crimes. Recently, A US court sentenced a Bangladeshi-American to several years of imprisonment after he had been found running a human trafficking network in the Mexico-American border2.A Kuwaiti court sentenced a Bangladeshi MP and some high-level Kuwaiti officials to 7-year of imprisonment in similar charges. After the MP had been found guilty, Bangladeshi Parliament revoked his position3. Long ago a Thai Court sentenced a General to 14-year of imprisonment after he had taken party in human trafficking operations through Thai-Malaysian jungles. Many unknown mass graves of hapless migrants were found there. Even then no high-profile Bangladeshi public official was tried by the government back then. This is the keenness and commitment shown by Bangladesh in human trafficking incidents.
Back in the 70s Bangladeshis went to Libya to build road network, apartment complex and utility network. Now 40 years later, they flocked to Libyan shores to take a risky boat ride to reach the Italian coast and made news items on foreign press. Recurrence of such tragedies exposes the flaws in our development story and seriously calls into question strength of our economy.
Notes And References:
1 “Bhumodhosagore Thandae Jomey Pran Gelo 7 Bangladeshir(7 Bangladeshis Froze To Death in The Mediterranean)”(Page-1),Daily Prothom Alo,January 26,2022
2 “US Jails Bangladeshi Man For Human Trafficking Charges”,bdnews24.com,October 01,2021. For more read https://m.bdnews24.com/en/detail/bangladesh/1846532
3 “Kuwaiti Court Jails Ex-Bangladeshi MP To 7 Years For Human Trafficking “,Ramadan Al Sherbini,Gulf News,November 28,2021. For more read https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/kuwait/kuwaiti-court-jails-ex-bangladeshi-mp-to-7-years-for-human-trafficking-1.84019786
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