Twenty-three Bangladeshi women and children returned home through the Benapole checkpost on Tuesday.

The returnees comprising 14 women and nine children belong to Khulna, Narail, Jashore, Bagerhat, Pabna, Noakhali and Cox's Bazar districts, were trafficked to India at different times.

They returned home with a special travel permit issued by Kolkata Travel on coordinated efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, and the Special Task Force on Prevention of Trafficking in Women and Children in West Bengal, according to a press release from the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata.

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Many Bangladeshi women and children got stranded in different safe homes after being trafficked or entering India’s West Bengal illegally or mistakenly. The Directorate of Child Rights and Trafficking of West Bengal informed the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata about these stranded women and children.

This is the fifth repatriation process on a large scale after the repatriation of 38 women and children on January 25 last year, 37 people on September 20, 20 people on October 8 and 21 women and children on January 7 this year.

A special delegation from the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh handed over 23 women and children to the local district administration and local police administration in Benapole.