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Satyarthi for early repatriation of boy

By SANJOY RAY

GUWAHATI, Sept 23 - Nobel laureate and child rights crusader Kailash Satyarthi has vouched for early repatriation and rehabilitation of a minor Bangladeshi boy who was trafficked to Assam through the porous international border some seven years back.�������

The development, apart from exposing the standard of the vigil along the international border, has now added a new ramification vis-a-vis the porous Assam-Bangla border which many believe has, of late, become an important route for cross-border human trafficking.

Security forces, reacting to the development, said that the incident�has come as an eye-opener and requisite measures would be taken to thwart any human trafficking attempt in future.����

The 2014 Nobel laureate has moved the�Bangladesh High Commission seeking early repatriation of the 16-year-old boy who was rescued in New Delhi seven years back after he was trafficked to India through Assam in 2009.�The trafficked survivor was just 10 years then.

The boy who was rescued last week along with 14 others during counselling told members of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) that he was trafficked around seven years back through Assam-Bangla border after which he stayed in Guwahati for a few months before being transported to Delhi along with some other children.����������

The boy is in a children�s home now and a team of BBA will soon visit the Bangladesh High Commission to get the paper works done. Later, members of the BBA will also accompany the trafficked survivor to the Indo-Bangla border from where he will be deported.

He is likely to be deported from a location either in Assam or Tripura.

�If things go as planned then the boy should be repatriated within a week or so,� said Rakesh Senger of BBA while talking to this reporter. Senger said that the boy during the last seven years worked in different factories under hazardous situations, including roadside dhabas�and garment factories.�

�Initially, he told us that he was from Guwahati but when we tried to verify his address, he confessed to have been trafficked from Bangladesh,� Senger said.

Senger is of the opinion that unlike few years back when young boys and girls were trafficked from Bangladesh mostly through West Bengal especially Malda, the trend has now shifted to Assam-Bangla border.

�The Assam Bangla border is the most followed by traffickers now, while Siliguri continues to be the transit point and source for girls from Nepal and Bangladesh,� he said.

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