A Game of Chance

Munna Ghosh from the south-eastern city of Chandpur, Bangladesh eked a living as a professional singer and keyboardist. However, like many of his peers, he had always dreamed of going to Europe for better pay and working conditions. Regrettably, in trying to pursue this dream, he would soon find out that a network of middlemen and human traffickers would chart other less palatable paths for him.

In 2007, Munna was working as a dressmaker in Sharjah United Arab Emirates, when a family friend lured him with a false promise of lucrative opportunities in Greece, “I had no idea that he would turn into a middleman or smuggler after going there. He promised that it would be an easy journey and I completely believed him. It would take months to describe the suffering I went through,” Munna recalled his first journey to Europe. 

In 2012, Munna set off for Greece from the UAE without realizing how dangerous it would be. “Once you start, there’s no going back. I was shaken to the core BY WHAT I experienced, but I kept going only to save my life. We were taken through two different countries, made to climb several mountains, forced to board a wooden boat in rough seas and kept deep inside a forest without clean water and food. They constantly asked for more money, and any refusal would result in heavy beating, and sometimes even death,” he added.

The middlemen were part of an armed trafficking network. “They tortured me and threatened me with death. I had already paid them BDT 300,000 (USD 2,900) to make it to Turkey alive.” The middlemen took Munna to the Turkish border where he was subsequently arrested by the Turkish border guards and sent to a refugee camp in Istanbul where he was confined for a week. 

Inside the camp, he met another middleman who promised to smuggle him into Greece. He had to pay another BDT 300,000 (USD 2,900). There, he was eventually arrested by Greek police while working in a factory and was sentenced to two years in jail.  

Since he had lost all his documents while trying to reach Greece, the police were unable to identify his country of origin and therefore could not send him back to Bangladesh. After he was eventually released, he tried to start all over again, but then Greece went into an economic crisis.

Later, as the European Union opened its borders to Syrian refugees, Munna joined many of them who made it to Germany. Ending up in Bielefeld, where he was given a refugee card and a work permit, he decided to first learn German and train to work in retirement homes. “I could finally make some time for music. I made many friends, and we would regularly jam together. I am still in touch with them. One of my German friends named his new house after me.”

In 2016, his older brother suddenly died of a stroke. Munna was devastated but did not have the means to return to Bangladesh and perform his last rites.   

Then, his case for political asylum in Germany was rejected. One day, the police came knocking on his door and he was sent back to Bangladesh overnight. He did not even get the chance to bring anything with him.  

He was received at the airport by IOM and was offered immediate support under the Prottasha project. At that point, however, he was still trying to process what had just happened to him and initially did not accept the support from IOM.   

He returned to Chandpur empty-handed. For several months, Munna isolated himself and did not talk to anyone outside his family. He then took a job at a local tailor shop and finally decided to go to the IOM-led Prottasha Reintegration Service Center.  

As a start, Munna received several sessions of psychosocial counselling to battle with his mental health issues.

“Prottasha rekindled hope in me. I started dreaming about my own business after the counseling and applying for in-kind support to combine my passion and work. I started my own sound system business after buying two speakers and a mixing console with Prottasha’s support. I also occasionally work as a tailor to harness my skills and make some extra money,” said Munna.   

He now runs his own sound-system and dressmaking business. He is also the keyboardist and vocalist of a local band, Ronger Dhol which performs regularly at events across Chandpur and beyond.  In the end, it was music that helped him cope with the emotional trauma he went through during his migration journey.

Funded by the European Union, the Prottasha project contributed to the sustainable reintegration of returnees in Bangladesh and the progressive achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 10.7 to facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed policies.