After 4 years, Bangladeshi woman reunited with family

Solma’s family had reported her missing four years ago and placed missing persons advertisements in Bangladeshi newspapers.

The police had rescued Solma, who was later found to be mentally challenged, from Sarati village in Arambagh district in April 2015. After she was produced before a magistrate, she was sent to a shelter in Arambagh, where she has lived for the last two years.

After extensive counseling, Solma began to regain her memory. “She started telling us about her family. We came to know that she was married and had three children. She said she was brought to India by a woman friend, who promised to get her treated here… we do not if she was able to get treated for her mental condition… The friend abandoned her after bringing her here,” said Madhurima Dhanuka, a member of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), who has helped with Solma’s repatriation.

As Solma started to get her memory back, the head counsellor of the shelter home managed to contact her family and procure all requisite documents. Following this, the Bangladesh Legal Aid Services Trust (BLAST) contacted CHRI. After following up with the Bangladesh Deputy High Commission in Kolkata, and various visits to the West Bengal home department, Solma’s nationality was verified and a repatriation order issued in December, 2016.

According to CHRI’s latest report, statistics provided by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) indicates that there are 6,185 foreign prisoners in India as on December 31, 2015. Of this, West Bengal prisons house more than half the total foreign prisoners — 98 per cent of them are Bangladeshi nationals.