Dozens of Bangladeshi 'slaves' rescued from jungle in Thailand

© BBC News

Thai authorities have rescued dozens of Bangladeshis from a jungle, says the BBC.

A BBC report said that they had been abducted and taken to Thailand to be sold as 'slaves'.

The men were promised well-paid jobs, before being drugged, bound and kidnapped, the report said.

The government in Thailand say they are trying to fight the slave trade, but have been accused of "dragging their heels" on the issue.

The report, however, did not disclose the identities of those rescued.

On Saturday, Thai security forces arrested two men charged with human trafficking, following the discovery of 53 men in a rubber plantation.

Thirty-eight of them were Bangladeshis and 15 were Rohingyas, a largely stateless Muslim minority from western Myanmar.

The human trafficking network operates out of the port city of Chittagong in Bangladesh, as previous investigations by the 'Arakan Project', a Western research initiative in human trafficking in south-east Asia had found.

Chris Lewa, a Belgian researcher based in Thailand, directed the project.

Some religious leaders in Chittagong and a few in Malaysia and Thailand are key elements in this human trafficking chain that sucks in hundred of hapless poor Bangladeshis and Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh, the project found.

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