Samoa's assistant chief executive of Immigration, Aualiitia Faafouina Milford, has revealed that Samoa deported a group of people from Bangladesh late last year on suspicion that they were engaged in human trafficking.
Aualiitia was commenting on a report by the Australian Institute of Criminology which warns of an alarming rise in trafficking in the South Pacific.
The report says that during the past six years, Samoa and nine other countries in the region reported their belief that people had been trafficked into their countries.
Aualiitia told the Samoa Observer the group from Bangladesh was found to have migrated to Samoa illegally.
The group was deported after an investigation was carried out.
Aualiitia says there's no doubt illegal activities such as human trafficking are increasing and intensifying daily in the region.
He says it's becoming a huge concern for Immigration Samoa.
