KOZHIKODE: Eleven Bangladesh nationals who are stuck in various short-stay homes and prisons in Kozhikode for having no valid travel documents are now free to go home with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs directing Kozhikode city police commissioner to deport them before April 24.
City police commissioner Uma Behera told DC that her office received the communication on April 13. The Bangladeshis include three girls, six men and a boy. The girls were brought here eight years ago by the sex racket when they were of the age 12, 13 and 14 and are now put up at Mahila Mandiram.
The men, who are in the district jail, and a boy in Government Boys Home, were arrested by the police two years ago for not having proper documents with them.
The news of the Bangladeshis being trapped here reached the Prime Minister’s Office after the media celebrated the release of the translation of a book of poems and short stories written by one among the women.
Following the book’s release, the woman, victim of sex-trafficking, could travel back to Dhaka and Bangladeshi High Commission officials visited the others on January 16. Anoop G, managing trustee of Arm of Joy, the NGO that initiated the homecoming efforts for the Bangladeshis, said the Bangladeshi high commission has issued travel permits which will expire on April 24. “The high commission had earlier issued the permits but they went missing,” he said.
