As many as 144 human trafficking victims headed for home yesterday, two days after they were repatriated from Myanmar.

The Cox's Bazar district administration finished the process of sending the victims home after completing legal formalities. By 6:30pm, all the 144 left the temporary camp at Cox's Bazar Cultural Centre.

The Myanmar Border Guard Police on Monday handed over 150 trafficking victims, preliminarily identified as Bangladeshis, to Border Guard Bangladesh. Of them, 55 are from Narsingdi. They were rescued by Myanmar navy on May 21 while being trafficked to Malaysia on a boat.

However, detectives identified two of the 150 victims as Rohingyas from Myanmar. They are Hamid Hossain, 26, and Md Idris, 19.

Hamid is a refugee registered at Kutupalang Rohingya refugee camp in Ukhia upazila of Cox's Bazar. Hailing from Maungdaw of Myanmar, Idris had entered Bangladesh illegally several years ago and had been staying here ever since, said police.

Law enforces detained 25-year-old Saker Ullah, suspecting him to be a Rohingya. "We will interrogate him further," said Tofail Ahmed, additional superintendent of police in Cox's Bazar.

The Detective Branch of police also arrested three others from the 150. One of them is suspected trafficker Uzzal Hossain.

The two others are Shafiul Islam of Kutubdia in Cox's Bazar and Saddam Hossain of Jessore. They are fugitive convicts in separate cases.

 The six arrestees were handed over to Cox's Bazar Sadar Model Police Station yesterday.

Mohammad Ali Hossain, deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar, said police sent 120 victims home in buses.

24 MINORS AMONG VICTIMS

Police and representatives of Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BRCS) and International Organisation for Migration identified 24 victims as minor.

Aged between 15 and 17, they were handed over to the BRCS after a Cox's Bazar court yesterday allowed the organisation to take the minors to home. The order came after the BRCS filed a petition to the court seeking its permission.

Volunteers of the BRCS would accompany each of the 24 minors to home, said Nurul Absar, acting chairman of the Cox's Bazar unit of BRCS.