Abdul Malik,a 22-year-old Bangladeshi,has been held in police custody for the last 15 days for having entered India illegally. But unlike the thousands of his countrymen who reportedly cross the notoriously porous 4,000-km-long Indo-Bangladesh border every year,he did not take the land route to come to India. In fact,he never intended to come to India in the first place. It was only a quirk of fate that brought this former scrap cutter to Indian shores in Hutbay in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the last week of December. Fate and a lot of luck,since more than 300 of his travelling companions are still missing and are presumed to have drowned. Maliks interrogation by the authorities has revealed a shocking tale of human trafficking of poor and illiterate people living in Bangladesh and Myanmar on the pretext of providing them lucrative jobs in Thailand or Malaysia. Malik was part of a group of about 450 people who were being taken to Thailand with such promises but were apprehended by the Thai Army at the harbour. After a few days of confinement and torture,they were put on a rudderless wooden boat and left to their fate in the open seas with very little food or water. After about 10 days of drifting,they spotted a lighthouse on a mountain island in Hutbay and,in a desperate bid reach land,many of them jumped overboard. Only Malik and 10 others succeeded in reaching the shore after one day and one night of swimming in the sea. Some others were rescued by the Indian Coast Guard ships on patrol nearby. A total of 103 rescued people 68 Bangladesh and 35 Myanmar nationals were brought to Port Blair where they are being questioned. Malik,who has studied till intermediate level and has working knowledge of both Hindi and English,told the authorities that he used to work as a scrap cutter in a steel company in Chittagong until May 2007 when the unit closed down because of financial problems,forcing him to return to his village in Cox Bazaar district. It was during his period of unemployment that a local agent got in touch with him and promised him a good job in Malaysia. Malik was told to pay 15-20 thousand takas for this prospect of a better future. A desperate Malik somehow arranged 15,000 takas and paid the agent. In the second week of November,Malik and three others from his village set sail with the agent in his private boat. After an hours journey,they were shifted to another boat which already carried 40 people. These people had come from different parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar. After two days and one night,their boat reached the Shan state on the Myanmar-Thailand border and after a further seven hours,they reached a place called Renong where a lady was supposed to be waiting for them. It was here that luck deserted them. The boat was spotted by the Thai Army which arrested all the 44 persons on board and took them to a nearby island where the captives were kept for two days without food or water. On the third day,the Army brought a middleman who could speak Bengali. He talked to the arrested people and assured them that all of them would be shifted to Malaysia if they paid 2,500 takas each. But since no one had any money,the middleman went away. Malik revealed during his interrogation that the Thai Army then kept them on the island for 12 days after which,the entire group was shifted to another island where more people like them were brought in batches and their numbers swelled to 447. Because of his knowledge of English,Malik was made the supervisor of the group and asked to help with attendance and ration distribution. Malik said the group was frequently tortured by the Army during this period. Finally,in the third week of December,the Army put all the detainees on one big wooden boat which had neither an engine nor sails. But before that,they shot dead four people whose health was deteriorating. The boat was towed by a trawler manned by the Thai Army and after sailing for 24 hours,detached and left to its fate. They drifted for about eight-nine days,surviving just on two gallons of water and two bags of boiled rice that had been placed on their boat by the Army. It was in this desperate situation that they sighted the lighthouse on an island in Hutbay. Not sure whether their boat would drift towards the island,most of them jumped into the sea. Malik said while he was swimming towards the island,he saw the dead bodies of many of his fellow travellers floating around. The rescued people have been put up in a relief camp and are being provided consular access,with their identification and other formalities being carried out,after which they will be sent back to their respective countries.
