The US State Department has once again put Bangladesh in the Tier-2 category in its latest report on human trafficking because of the country's failure to fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of the scourge.
According to the report, Bangladesh is primarily a source, and, to a lesser extent, a transit and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking and some Bangladeshi men and women who migrate willingly to work in the Middle East, East Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States subsequently face conditions indicative of forced labour.
Hailing some of the initiatives, the report said the Bangladesh government continued to prepare, but did not finalise, the implementing rules for the 2012 Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act (PSHTA) during the year. The government lacked a formal mechanism to refer trafficking victims to protective services.
While the government reached a labour export agreement with Saudi Arabia requiring employers to pay certain recruitment costs, legal recruitment fees continued to be extremely high, according to the report.
Secretary of State John Kerry released the report on Monday in Washington, and said, "The bottom line is that this is no time for complacency. It is a battle against money. It is a battle against evil. It is remarkable that in 2015 we face a modern-day version of slavery."
Since 2001, the US Department of State has been releasing the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report every year. This report examines trafficking country-by-country, ranks each country and gives suggestions to each country's government to improve the fight against 'modern slavery'.
The U.S. State Department puts countries that do the most to fight human trafficking in Tier 1, and the least in Tier 3. Tier 2 includes a Watch List for countries in danger of dropping to Tier 3.
This year, 18 countries were upgraded and another 18 were downgraded. Those downgraded from the Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 3 included Belarus, Belize, Burundi, Comoros, the Marshall Islands and South Sudan.
Penalties for countries demoted to Tier 3 are at the discretion of the U.S. President, but could include restrictions on non-humanitarian assistance and funding.
Alongside Malaysia, upgrades from Tier 3 to the Watch List included Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua New Guinea, and Uzbekistan. The 2015 report begins with, among others items, a list of all situations that are now considered forms of human trafficking … Sex trafficking, Child sex trafficking, Forced labour, Bonded labour or debt bondage, Domestic servitude, Forced child labour, Unlawful recruitment and use of child soldiers.
About Bangladesh, which was placed in Tier-2 category for the last four years, the report said many migrant workers before their departure assume debt to pay high recruitment fees, imposed legally by recruitment agencies belonging to the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) and illegally by unlicensed sub-agents. "This places some migrant workers at risk of debt bondage," it said.
Some recruitment agencies and agents also commit recruitment fraud, including contract switching, in which they promise one type of job and conditions, but then change the job, employer, conditions, or salary after arrival, it said. About women and children, the report said women who migrate for domestic work are particularly vulnerable to abuse. Some women and children are subjected to commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour in India and Pakistan and some NGOs allege instances of officials on both sides of the India-Bangladesh border allowing human traffickers to operate.
Within the country, some children and adults are subjected to sex trafficking, domestic servitude, and forced and bonded labour, in which traffickers exploit an initial debt assumed by a worker as part of the terms of employment. In some instances, children are sold into a form of bondage by their parents, while others are induced into labour through fraud and physical coercion, including in the domestic fish processing industry, or exploited in prostitution, it said. Citing international expert on debt bondage, it said Bangladeshi families and Indian migrant workers are subjected to bonded labour in some of Bangladesh's brick kilns, some kiln owners sell bonded females into prostitution, purportedly to recoup the families' debts, and some Bangladeshi families are subjected to debt bondage in shrimp farming.
Placing a number of recommendations to overcome the problem, the 384-page report suggested to finalise, adopt and disseminate the implementing rules for the PSHTA and train government officials on its implementation.
It also recommended for taking steps to eliminate all recruitment fees charged by licensed labour recruiters, and enforce violations with criminal sanctions and increase the rate of prosecutions and convictions, particularly of labour trafficking. It said while strictly respecting due process, establish standard operating procedures for the referral of victims to protection services and thoroughly investigate credible allegations of government complicity in trafficking and prosecute offenders who are complicit.
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BD put on Tier-2 watch list again
FE Report | Published: July 29, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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