3 Bangladeshis return home after escaping human trafficking ring in Libya

Three Bangladeshi men who escaped a brutal human trafficking ring in Libya have finally returned home after nearly nine months of captivity and torture.

Motiur Rahman Sagar (Jhenaidah), Tanzir Sheikh (Kushtia), and Alamgir Hossain (Noakhali) arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Wednesday on a Buraq Airlines flight, BRAC confirmed.

The men were lured to Libya with false promises of jobs in Italy and paid large sums—Tk 4 lakh each for Sagar and Sheikh, and Tk 3 lakh for Alamgir—to the traffickers. Instead of employment, they were sold to a mafia group in Tripoli and held with around 80 other Bangladeshis. They endured months of torture and ransom extortion, with traffickers sending videos of abuse to their families. Believing the men dead, the traffickers abandoned them in the desert.

Fortunately, fellow Bangladeshi workers found the survivors in critical condition and arranged medical care. Following appeals from their families, BRAC worked with the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP), the International Justice Mission (IJM), and other partners to safely repatriate the survivors.

Two cases under the Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act have been filed in Dhaka, with the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) probing the matter and arresting two alleged traffickers.

Tanzir Sheikh shared, “They kept us tied up and beat us with iron rods. They sent videos to our families to demand ransom. Thinking we were dead, they left us in the desert. I never imagined I would survive.”

Shariful Hasan, Associate Director of BRAC’s Migration Programme, highlighted the ongoing risks: “Many are trafficked to Libya with promises of European jobs, but end up abused in camps. Despite this, the dream of reaching Europe continues to push many Bangladeshis into danger.”

BRAC’s Migration Welfare Center Manager, Al Amin Noyon, noted that similar efforts led to the repatriation of two other trafficking victims in late June.