A victim of an immigration fraud scheme broke down in tears at a Bangladesh airport after discovering his visa and ticket were fake. Mohammad Babul Hossain was filmed crying at Dhaka airport after being told that his paperwork for a supposed trip to Thailand was not authentic.
The victim
According to a report in Ajker Patrika, Mohammad Babul Hossain, also known as Jamal, is a 35-year-old tailor. A resident of Balia Bhada village of Manikganj, Bangladesh, he had dreams of going abroad for a better life.
Hossain ran a small tailoring shop through which he struggled to support his family. Since 2020, he had been saving money to go abroad, where he hoped to build a better life for himself and his family.
Multiple cases of fraud
Unfortunately, Hossain was defrauded several times in his attempts to go abroad. The first was in 2021, when he paid around 250,000 taka ( ₹1.8 lakh) to one person who promised to send him abroad. Nothing came of the promise and he lost the money. (Also read: ‘I got robbed in Asia’s scam city’: Man forces Australian to take toy in Delhi, walks away with his money)
{{/usCountry}}Unfortunately, Hossain was defrauded several times in his attempts to go abroad. The first was in 2021, when he paid around 250,000 taka ( ₹1.8 lakh) to one person who promised to send him abroad. Nothing came of the promise and he lost the money. (Also read: ‘I got robbed in Asia’s scam city’: Man forces Australian to take toy in Delhi, walks away with his money)
{{/usCountry}}Later, he paid another 50,000 taka to another man, hoping to reach Saudi Arabia. He did not get a visa.
In 2024, the Bangladeshi man signed a contract with an agency for 750,000 taka to go to Belarus. He paid 30,000 taka ( ₹22,000 approximately) in installments. This, too, turned out to be a fraud — and he has still not recovered the full amount he paid.
Fake visa scam
Hossain later came in contact with a person named “Sohel” through a YouTube channel. Sohel claimed to know a person named Afridi, who runs a company called BD Food in Thailand. He told Hossain that he could get him a job at BD Food with a salary of 50,000 taka per month.
Believing his promise, Hossain sent Sohel 360,000 taka ( ₹2.7 lakh).
“I sent a total of 360,000 taka to Afridi through bKash, Nagad and Hundi. Later, they sent visa, plane tickets and job papers. The flight was scheduled for 2 am on Sunday. But when I entered the airport, I found out that all the papers were fake,” he told Ajker Patrika.
Hossain had borrowed money from people and sold shop goods to raise the money for his supposed Thailand job. The tailor is now anxious about how he will repay the loans.
“I don't know how to repay people. Everyone in the area knows I'm going abroad. Now I don't even have the courage to return home,” he said.