Exploited and brutalised by their own

Vessels of misery: Members of the Rapid Action Battalion walking past fishing boats while on patrol in Shamlapur, Bangladesh, a common route used for smuggling Rohingya refugees. — AFP

AUTO rickshaws slip easily past barbed-wire checkpoints at the world’s biggest refugee camp, their drivers among the smallest players in a complex human trafficking network involving high-seas extortion gangs, corrupt police and drug lords.

Aboard the spluttering rickshaws are small groups of young men, women and children hoping to escape misery with other members of stateless Rohingya who are crowded into shanties in Bangladesh.