00:00This family on the outskirts of Dhaka is living through a nightmare.
00:05Aminul, son, husband and father, paid around 8,000 U.S. dollars to a Bangladeshi travel
00:11broker to help him find work abroad.
00:13After he left the country, his wife Juma received the shocking news that he was fighting with
00:18the Russian military in Ukraine.
00:21Then she lost contact with him for several weeks.
00:25If I or my husband knew that he would be sent to the war, we would never have paid to have
00:30him sent off to die.
00:32Do you think we wanted to pay for him to die?
00:34He went to them hoping to get a job.
00:37The brokers lied to us and sold my husband to the Russian army.
00:42At least seven Bangladeshi men or their families have alleged that this agency in Dhaka promised
00:47them work abroad but then trafficked them into the Russian military.
00:51One of the men has been reported killed in the war.
00:55Arman Mandol is another one of the agency's clients.
00:58He says the brokers promised him work as a cleaner in Russia, but once he arrived there,
01:03he claims, Russian officials coerced him into the military.
01:06They told us to sign a paper written in Russian.
01:12We didn't understand it.
01:14It was actually a document to join the Russian army and we signed it without understanding
01:20it.
01:25Arman says he was sent to a two-week training camp and then deployed to Ukraine.
01:29There, he was injured in both legs by a landmine.
01:34He spoke to DW from his hospital bed in Russia and told us he's looking for a way back to
01:38Bangladesh.
01:39We are going through a difficult time in Russia.
01:45I hope I can go back to my country.
01:47I want to see my family.
01:49I don't want to be here anymore.
01:51I want to survive.
01:53Outraged by the situation, several of the men's families filed charges with the police
01:57against the owners of the Dhaka agency, Fabia T. and Abul H.
02:02Fabia was arrested at the Dhaka airport and charged with human trafficking.
02:07The case is being tried at this court in the capital, where plaintiffs' families gathered
02:12looking for information about their missing loved ones.
02:16Fabia and her lawyers declined to speak to DW.
02:20The Dhaka agency, at the center of the allegations, has been closed by the police.
02:26But we reached co-owner Abul by video link from a location outside of Bangladesh that
02:30he did not disclose to us.
02:32He claims that he didn't intend for his clients to end up as soldiers.
02:40We sent them with visas to work as cleaners and for a salary of about $1,000 per month.
02:46But they signed a second agreement with a lucrative offer of over $16,000 monthly salary.
02:53They did not inform me, nor the brother of my partner, who went there with them.
03:01We learned all this after they were totally entrapped.
03:07Abul says he's not hiding from the police and intends to cooperate with the investigation.
03:14If I committed any offense, I will surrender myself to the law.
03:19I am prepared to face trial according to Bangladeshi law.
03:25The Bangladeshi government is negotiating with Russia to bring home the men presumed
03:29to still be there.
03:30A spokesperson for the foreign ministry said this was a clear case of coercion.
03:37Those who are going to the Ukraine war are not doing it willingly.
03:41We can say that they're pressured into it by travel brokers.
03:45Either they're offered something lucrative or, once they're abroad, they're lured into
03:49it with offers of money.
03:51It's an illegal scheme and they as well travel there illegally.
03:54We're trying to crack down on it, but it's a difficult task, because even with the help
03:58of the UN, we're failing in our attempts to combat illegal migration.
04:04This case of alleged trafficking is not the only one of its kind in Bangladesh.
04:08Police say they suspect 67 people of luring Bangladeshis into other countries, including
04:13Russia, with lucrative offers.
04:15The scale of their operations is not known.
04:18We're trying to weed out the entire human trafficking gang operating this new route
04:23to Russia.
04:25Some of the operations are here in Bangladesh.
04:28But this route, this human trafficking route, is new.
04:33That's why we're taking it seriously and we're trying to stop this thing.
04:39After weeks of uncertainty, Juma finally received a message from her husband letting her know
04:44that he's still alive.
04:47But they both know his journey back home will be difficult.
04:51It's still unclear if Russia will allow him to leave, and if so, how long it will be before
04:56she and their children see him again.
Comments