Thirty-seven Bangladeshi nationals, most of them teenagers, returned home on Monday after serving up to three years of jail term in India for illegal entry into the neighbouring country.
Petrapole Immigration Police handed the returnees – 13 girls, 20 boys and four women to Benapole Immigration Police in the evening.
They were trafficked to India through different points of the border with promises of jobs, but unfortunately landed in jail. The boys and girls were aged between 12 and 18 when they got trafficked.
READ: 27 more Bangladeshis return through Darshana checkpost
Binoy Krishna Mallik, executive director of Jashore Rights, said the victims went to India’s Bangalore three and half years back.
Ahsan Habib, officer-in-charge of Benapole Check-post Immigration, said the Bangladeshi nationals returned through travel permits.
They were later handed over to Benapole Port police from where two NGOs will receive them, he said.
READ: 30 more Bangladeshis rescued from the Mediterranean return from Tunisia: BRAC
The returnees will have to stay there for 14-day institutional quarantine, he added.