Indonesian police found 193 Bangladeshis locked up in a shop house after human traffickers had lured them with the promise of getting them to Malaysia, an official said on Thursday.
The men entered Indonesia as tourists via Bali and the city of Yogyakarta with the intention of going to Malaysia for work, North Sumatra’s immigration chief said. “They are victims of human trafficking and were lured here,” Fery Monang Sihite said.
The men, who were described as in a healthy condition when they were found on Tuesday night, have been taken to an immigration detention centre and would be sent back to Bangladesh, Mr. Sihite said.
One of the men, named as 39-year old Mahbub, was quoted by online news portal Tribun Medan as saying that some of the group had been held by the traffickers for three months.
