Dhaka: Following massive crackdowns on human smuggling from Bangladesh through sea recently, smugglers now are using new route to suffice their illegal business.

The smugglers now first take the victims to neighbouring India or Nepal through land routes and then fly them to Turkey. From there, victims are sent to different destinations through illegal and often hazardous ways, reported The Jakarta Post.

‘Such syndicates, according to some victims and government officials, have agents in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Turkey, Libya and some other countries. Exploiting the desperation of the low-income people, these traffickers smuggle them into different European, Latin American and Middle-Eastern countries.’

While some lucky people were saved from being trafficked, several hundred Bangladeshis, according to an investigation of the Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP), had already been smuggled to different countries, including Brazil, via Turkey with official passports.

Investigators said the syndicate had been active for years and had members, including some women, in 18 countries.

The syndicate members have collusion with corrupt officials at the Agargaon passport office in Dhaka, claimed the report.

‘The syndicate members work in small groups. They lure people, obtain fake passports and forge visas to traffic people,’ said Lt Col Khandaker Golam Sarwar, commanding officer of Rapid Action Battalion-3. His unit is probing several trafficking cases.

A large gang comprising passport officials and staffs, brokers and travel agents has so far had at least 2,000 official passports issued against fake documents, the DIP investigation revealed.

‘The syndicate usually takes Tk 7-10 lakh for each passport, according to a DIP official.’

‘An official and three staffs of the passport office were suspended in May for forging official passports and assisting human traffickers.

‘Rab-3 officials recently said at least 43 women and seven men were trafficked to war-ravaged Syria in the past few months. The women were supposed to be sent to Lebanon as domestic workers. It is not clear whether they were sent on forged passports.’