Human trafficking is essentially a new term for slave trading. It is the buying and selling of human beings, like the buying and selling of any other product. Victims are either sold by family members to people who want to make money out of these victims, or are abducted and forced into labour.
The definition of 'human trafficking' is something along the lines of "the illegal transportation of human cargo from one country, location, or area, to another." Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receiving persons, by means of the threat or use of power or other forms of coercion, fraud or deception. It mostly happens due to a position of vulnerability of the victims.
Men, women, and children are sold into a $150 billion annual market for sex and labour. This is happening globally and domestically in urban and suburban areas, in hotels, restaurants, and on street corners. Slavery is wrapped up in almost every industry's supply chain, tainting the food we eat, the clothes we buy, and the electronics we love. After the international drug trade, trafficking of humans is tied with arms dealing as the second- largest criminal industry in the world.
Recently, child trafficking, especially female child trafficking, has become a painful reality in Bangladesh. This child trafficking has been occurring internally and also across the border to India, Pakistan, Malaysia and many Middle Eastern countries. The rate of trafficking has been increasing alarmingly in this country. Many boys have also been trafficked to the Middle East to become jockeys in camel racing. Every year several hundred (under the age of eighteen) children are being trafficked abroad. These trafficked children are adapting to a new life style which is different from what they had at home. A new personality is emerging because of their adaptation to a new life style. As a result a new culture (culture of trafficked child) emerges in their environment.
Nowadays, trafficking is an easy way of making money. A group of heinous criminals have taken it up as a profession. They allure the victims' parents and guardians to voluntarily put them in (the victims) their hands. Sometimes they kidnap individuals to traffic them outside the country.
In the name of providing employment they entice innocent people into their trap. They are brought over to Dhaka and forced into antisocial activities. Good-looking women are being trafficked abroad. Although Dhaka is their hub of activity, these criminals are also linked with networks abroad.
Given the complex, organised and clandestine nature of the crime, and deliberate reluctance and avoidance of the victim's family to report the cases of trafficking for a number of socio-psychological reasons, it is difficult to have appropriate data and statistics on human trafficking. However, various studies reveal that over one million women and children were trafficked out of the country in the last 30 years. A UNICEF report says that approximately 400 women and children in Bangladesh are victims of trafficking each month. Another study reports that approximately 300,000 Bangladeshi children and women between the age group of 12-30 were trafficked to India alone in the last ten years. The annual report of a Pakistan-based organisation, Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid, reveals that nearly 200,000 Bangladeshi girls and women were sold in Pakistan. All these statistics indicate the magnitude of the problem of human trafficking from Bangladesh.
Poverty, social exclusion or gender discrimination, widespread illiteracy, lack of awareness and poor governance are the key factors contributing to trafficking from Bangladesh.
 Trafficking of persons is nothing short of modern-day slavery. It is, therefore, not only a problem of Bangladesh, but a global problem. Bangladesh, along with other regional and international partners, is making continuous efforts to eliminate this vice. Despite this, human trafficking is expanding at an alarming rate. The most common forms of human trafficking in Bangladesh are, among others, trafficking for sexual exploitation, forced prostitution, domestic servitude, forced labour and other exploitations.
There are many effects of human trafficking, the main one being the effects on the individual persons and there relations. They may experience post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts. And this is only a minor part of it. Therefore, any effective and sustainable effort to combat human trafficking must be integrated and collaborative among nations.
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Scenario of human trafficking in Bangladesh
Nargis Sultana | Published: June 06, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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