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What began as a promising opportunity towards a better life turned into a harrowing ordeal for Junaeid Hossain Parbez Ariyan, 25, of Narsingdi's Belabo. He fell prey to an international human trafficking syndicate and was forced to work for an online scam gang operating in Myanmar's Karen State. Ariyan was among approximately 300 individuals, including women, held captive in at least 10 confinement centres near the Thai-Myanmar border. Thirteen of these victims are Bangladeshis. The captives are subjected to work under inhumane conditions and tortures. On October 18, Ariyan managed to flee from one of those confinement centres, which are guarded by armed members of Karen insurgent groups and criminal gangs. He jumped into a river, surviving an arduous trek through hills and forests. He returned home on November 14 and shared his harrowing experiences with this newspaper recently. DREAM TURNS INTO NIGHTMARE Ariyan had previously been working in Dubai's hospitality sector. In August, he was enticed by the promise of a lucrative computer operator job in Thailand, offering a salary of US $1,200–$1,500 -- twice his salary in Dubai. Convinced by a broker, Noman, a Dubai expatriate from Feni, and recruited after an online interview with a Chinese recruiter, Ariyan and four of his Bangladeshi roommates left for Thailand on August 12, hoping for a better life. Upon arriving in Bangkok, they were taken to Mae Sot, a Thai town near the Myanmar border. The six-hour drive ended abruptly when they were transferred into pickup vans, escorted by armed men, and driven through hilly roads and dense forests. "For the first time we realised we have made a grave mistake," Ariyan said. Then the group was made to cross the Moei River on a boat, and they reached Karen, a region plagued with insurgency. The victims were taken to a compound operated by Chinese syndicates. Their mobile phones were confiscated, and they were coerced at gunpoint to sign contracts obligating them to generate US $200,000 each through online scams within 18 months, or face prolonged servitude. The captives were forced to work 17 hours per day. Their task was to create fake social media IDs using cellphone numbers of different countries and befriend targets worldwide, posing as attractive women, to scam them. Afterwards, they would lure targets into investing in fake e-commerce platforms, embezzling significant sums of money. Ariyan said he alone generated US $25,000 before his escape. Each of the captives is given a target to befriend 80 targets a day. Failing to meet quotas resulted in brutal punishments. "We were beaten, subjected to electric shocks, and burnt with hot frying pans. Some women endured additional horrific treatment, such as being forced to stand for hours with heavy water drums on their shoulders," Ariyan said. He said at one point he gained the confidence of a Chinese boss and got his mobile phone back and secretly informed their terrible conditions to families and relatives. They sought the government's help but to no avail. "Seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, I got frustrated and attempted to commit suicide several times," Ariyan said in tears. A DARING ESCAPE On October 18, while escorting a Pakistani victim to a clinic near the Moei River, he saw an opportunity to escape. He jumped into the river despite being fired at by armed guards. After swimming for over 45 minutes, he reached the Thai side of the river. As the gang members started searching for him, he trekked through hills and forests to escape them, before reaching a road after over eight hours. "My legs were bleeding from cuts I sustained while running through forest. I was so thirsty that I had to drink water from a maize field," he said. Weak and dehydrated, he stumbled upon a Buddhist monk who helped him contact local authorities. Ariyan spent weeks in a Thai shelter for trafficking survivors before being sent home with the assistance of the Thai government, NGOs, and the Bangladesh Embassy. He urged the government to take action to rescue other Bangladeshi victims still trapped in those centres. OTHER VICTIMS SEEK GOVT INTERVENTION Another victim, Mehedi Hasan Shanto, managed to call his sister around a month ago from one of those centres and requested to contact the government to rescue him. Sonia Akhter Kona, his sister, said they contacted foreign and expatriate welfare ministries requesting to rescue Shanto and others. Meanwhile, amid the increasing number of such incidents, the expatriates' welfare ministry has issued warnings against travelling to Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The circular highlighted how individuals and organisations lure Bangladeshis with false promises of high-paying jobs, only to trap them in scam centres.
None“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few metres from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the social media platform X. He added that he and UN colleagues were safe. “We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave,” he said. UN spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay later said the injured person was with the UN Humanitarian Air Service. Our mission to negotiate the release of @UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation in #Yemen concluded today. We continue to call for the detainees' immediate release. As we were about to board our flight from Sana’a, about two hours ago, the airport... pic.twitter.com/riZayWHkvf — Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 26, 2024 Israel’s army later told The Associated Press it was not aware that the WHO chief was at the location in Yemen. The Israeli strikes followed several days of Houthi launches setting off sirens in Israel. The Israeli military in a statement said it attacked infrastructure used by the Iran-backed Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, along with power stations, asserting they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials. Israel’s military added it had “capabilities to strike very far from Israel’s territory — precisely, powerfully, and repetitively”. The strikes, carried out over 1,000 miles from Jerusalem, came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad’s regime and others learned” as his military has battled those more powerful proxies of Iran. The Houthi-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah reported multiple deaths and showed broken windows, collapsed ceilings and a bloodstained floor and vehicle. Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the strikes. The US military has also targeted the Houthis in recent days. The UN has said the targeted ports are important entry points for humanitarian aid for Yemen, the poorest Arab nation that plunged into a civil war in 2014. Over the weekend, 16 people were wounded when a Houthi missile hit a playground in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, while other missiles and drones have been shot down. Last week, Israeli jets struck Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people, calling it a response to previous Houthi attacks. The Houthis also have been targeting shipping on the Red Sea corridor in what it says is an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The UN Security Council has an emergency meeting on Monday in response to an Israeli request that it condemn the Houthi attacks and Iran for supplying them with weapons.
Two Maryland politicians are being considered to become the next chair of the Democratic National Committee, vying to lead a political party that is rebuilding after November losses in the White House and both chambers of Congress. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and nonprofit executive-turned Senate hopeful Robert Houton are on the increasingly long list of candidates vying to lead the DNC following its Feb. 1 election to replace outgoing Chair Jaime Harrison. Author and former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson was the latest competitor to launch her bid Thursday . O’Malley, Houton and Williamson represent wildly different political figures and are reflective of the growing list of DNC chair candidates. The field also includes Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair Ken Martin and Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler. O’Malley, who served as mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007 before becoming governor and launching a failed presidential bid in 2016, has chalked up the party’s 2024 defeat to its leaders growing out of touch with everyday Americans on “kitchen table” issues such as the economy. He has touted his record as chair of the Democratic Governors Association — which he did while in Annapolis from 2011 to 2012 — and repeatedly called for rejecting “the politics of fear.” “It’s time to get back to the party of FDR. The party that says there is nothing to fear but fear itself,” O’Malley wrote on X/Twitter Dec. 5 upon announcing his bid. O’Malley has received endorsements from both of Maryland’s incumbent senators, Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, as well as Senate-elect Angela Alsobrooks. Houton has a more colorful recent political history. A relative unknown from Bethesda, he campaigned on tackling opioid abuse in Maryland’s 2024 Democratic Senate primary but garnered less than 2,000 votes — just 0.29% — of the vote in Maryland’s 2024 Democratic Senate primary, a race dominated by eventual Senate-elect Alsobrooks and Rep. David Trone. Despite hoping to become the party’s nominee against former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, Houton ultimately endorsed Hogan in October while calling out Alsobrooks for what he called a campaign based on “lying, fear-mongering, name-calling and blame-gaming.” Thus far, Houton has not received the endorsement of any Maryland big wigs, but still has time to campaign before the party selects its new chair during its annual winter meeting in National Harbor, Prince George’s County. The ultimate choice for DNC chair will be tasked with rebuilding a party in the political wilderness — Republicans will hold a trifecta in the 119th Congress — amidst criticisms it has lost sight of pivotal working-class voters. ©2024 The Baltimore Sun. Visit at baltimoresun.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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