Suspects enrolled 322 people in universities but none of them continued their education

Investigation into human trafficking of Bangladeshi nationals into the TRNC has revealed that over 300 people were brought into the country for study but non of them registered in school.

Last week, two people were arrested by Turkish Cypriot police for human traffickingand taken to a court in Lefkosa on charges of "Secret Alliance to Commit a Serious Crime" and "violating the military forbidden zone."

Police in a statement on Friday said during the check on the mobile phones of the arrested suspects, passport pictures of many Bangladeshi citizens and many correspondences on these issues were detected during the control carried out on the mobile phones of the suspects.

He said the names of 8 people who had a connection with the issue were identified and the police are searching for them after obtaining pending warrants against them.

The police said that the suspects registered 322 Bangladeshi nationals in 5 different educational institutions in the 2021-2022 education period, but none of them continued their education, and 22 of them were caught and sent to prison for various crimes, especially violating the military forbidden zone. 

Police officer, who gave sworn testimony in the court, stated that within the scope of the investigation carried out regarding the incident that took place on August, 6, the suspects brought two Bangladeshi nationals, aged 21 and 27, to the TRNC with the promise of taking them from Bangladesh to Europe. He said that they received 6,000 Euros each.

The police also stated that it was determined that the victims were "registered with various educational institutions and employed in construction works".

The police said that the same suspects also entered a military forbidden area on August 1, 2022 in order to transfer the victims to south Cyprus and received 150 Euros per person in return.

The police said that the investigation on the matter is continuing, there are people wanted and there are signs. The police demanded that the suspects remain in detention for 7 days, as they are highly likely to adversely affect the investigation if they are released.