Iran based traffic syndicates use Bandar Abbas in Iran and its capital Tehran to traffic Bangladeshi migrants illegally from United Arab Emirates.

These fraudsters allure migrants from Dubai assuring them of providing attractive job packages and posh life in European countries, mostly in Turkey, Greece and Italy, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said on Tuesday.

Instead of giving the migrants job, the traffickers took them hostages in the small islands of Iran and torture them until they manage to collect ransoms from families of the victims.

The CID prepared the fact sheets based on the findings of a team of three CID officials that visited Dubai, Abudhabi, and Tehran for inquiring into a case on human trafficking on May last year.

Special superintendent of CID (Mymensingh) Md. Matiur Rahman, at a press briefing on Tuesday described how the Bangladeshi job seekers are being forced to pay ransoms after being confined by the frauds in Iran.

‘Bangladeshi traffickers are using two points in Iran — Bandar Abbas and Tehran — as the locking up point of trafficked migrants. Currently, many Bangladeshis are staying there, but none of them have legal documents,’ he said.

Because of such trafficking, innocent Bangladeshi migrants are losing their legal jobs in Dubai, being victims of extreme tortures, and as the ransoms are sent abroad, it is making capital flight, said Rahman.

‘The traffickers target the Bangladeshi workers in Dubai and lure them giving hopes of posh life in Greece. As soon as the migrant fell into their trap, they take all money from the innocent migrants in the name of legal job, visa fees, transportation and other charges. Then, traffickers took them to Bandar Abbas in Iran,’ said Rahman.

The migrants are transferred through speed boats by crossing the Gulf of Oman.

‘Later, these victims are locked up in some small islands of Iran. The frauds torture the hostages brutally and transmit their screams to their family members over phones demanding ransoms,’ he said.

Mobile money transfer systems like Bkash are being used for transferring the ransom amounts.

‘Bangladeshi members of such syndicates then give the families specific numbers of Bkash accounts, where the ransom money must be deposited by specific deadline, and threaten to kill the hostage workers if the family members fail to do so,’ the official added.

All these migrants are Bangladeshi people who sustain such tortures. Some even died of continuous torturing.

The law enforcers earlier arrested a member of such trafficking channel and seized 70 SIM cards linked with several Bkash accounts from his possession following complaints from relatives of Rafiq, one victim.

‘The ransom amount is first deposited in Bkash, and then transferred to bank accounts in Iran and Tehran,’ Rahman said adding that the CID was able to confiscate the money from those accounts earlier.

The official also said that the CID had already held meetings with officials of police, CID, and Interpol in Iran.

‘We have already identified 8 to 10 such traffickers based in Bandar Abbas and Tehran. A list containing their names was served to the law enforcers there seeking support in arresting them,’ he said.

With the help of Iran police, CID was able to rescue over 97 victims in 2013-14. CID also submitted charge-sheet against 160 people of human trafficking syndicates in 14 cases in the same year, according to CID data.