Bangladeshi Human Trafficking Ring Exposed Operating in Libya

A ruthless human trafficking network is luring Bangladeshi youths with promises of lucrative employment in Italy, only to trap them in brutal detention centres across Libya to extract heavy ransoms. Operating in close coordination with local armed gangs in the North African nation, the syndicate orchestrates systematic hostage-taking, using severe torture to force victims’ families back home into paying exorbitant sums.

For many victims, the ordeal does not end with financial extortion. Payment offers no genuine guarantee of reaching Europe or returning home safely. Captives are frequently abandoned in remote desert locations or forced onto unseaworthy vessels across the tempestuous Mediterranean Sea, where countless migrants drown.

Aminul Islam, a native of Tiler Char village in Babuganj Upazila, Barishal, survived this harrowing pipeline and recounted his two-month nightmare after travelling through Saudi Arabia and Egypt to reach Libya last year.

According to Aminul, the trafficking syndicate is spearheaded by Babu Chowdhury of Nazirpur in Pirojpur, alongside his maternal uncle Deen Islam, and Khairul Molla from Chitalmari in Bagerhat. Aminul had agreed on a 1.2-million-taka contract with the group to secure passage to Italy. Under the arrangement, he paid 825,000 taka in cash prior to departure and carried an additional 200,000 taka in US dollars.

The network maintains an active presence inside Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka. On the day of travel, syndicate operatives utilised specific code names to hand over flight tickets and facilitate smooth immigration clearance. Aminul travelled on a tourist visa via Jeddah and Egypt before touching down at Benghazi Airport.

Upon his arrival, Libyan handlers confiscated his passport, escorted him through a back exit into a private vehicle, and transferred him to a safe house. From there, he was moved to a clandestine torture facility commonly known as a “game house”, where between 250 and 300 hostages were already being held in squalor.

At the compound, captors recorded graphic video footage of Aminul being tortured, transmitting the clips to his family in Bangladesh alongside a ransom demand of two million taka. His desperate relatives sold ancestral land and incurred heavy debt to pay one million taka, yet the gang refused to release him. The domestic branch of the syndicate later seized Aminul’s motorcycle, valued at 350,000 taka, from his village residence before his captors finally set him free.

Aminul described the horrific conditions inside the desert camps scattered between Benghazi and Tripoli. Hostages whose relatives fail to pay are shot and buried in makeshift graves beneath the desert sands. Those who pay are crammed onto fragile rubber dinghies in treacherous weather conditions under the pretence of crossing to Italy, leading to frequent capsizes and mass casualties at sea.

Thousands of young Bangladeshis remain held in similar underground compounds across Libya. Following his return, Aminul filed a formal police case against the traffickers, leading to the arrest of Monjur Islam, brother of key operative Deen Islam. However, the survivor revealed that he and his family continue to face intimidation and live in constant fear of reprisals.