8 bodies found after boat capsizes in Bangladesh

Rescuers today recovered eight bodies from a fishing boat that capsized in the Bay of Bangal off the Bangladesh coast carrying migrants to Malaysia, as a search continued for several others still missing.
"Seven of the bodies were found early in the day and one in the afternoon," a police official told reporters at southeastern Cox's Bazar where coastguard and navy personnel have launched a rescue operation for the missing passengers, all believed to be Bangladeshis.
The boat sank yesterday with about 70 passengers onboard due to strong currents in the sea.
Commander of Coastguard's Kutubdiya station Tarek Mostafa earlier said the survivors gave different accounts on the number of passengers but since it was a small boat "we think the number of missing won't be more than a dozen."

Yesterday, 43 people were rescued with the help of residents of the area.
Police said it appeared all the passengers were Bangladeshi who intended to go to Malaysia illegally defying previous warnings against such attempts.

"We have filed a case against 11 brokers under the Human Trafficking Act for arranging the nearly 3,200-kilometre (2,000-mile) illegal trip to Malaysia," an official of the coastal Kutubdiya Police Station said.
Bangladesh in recent years witnessed attempts by its nationals as well as Myanmar's Rohingya refugees to go to Malaysia for a better life.
Some 100 people have died in an identical incident in 2012.

Officials say middlemen take money from these people, promising them send them to Malaysia, but in most cases they land in jails there as intruders.