3-year joint programme to prevent human trafficking

FE Team | Published: July 09, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) have jointly initiated a three-year programme to prevent human trafficking and expand economic opportunities for vulnerable groups with community infrastructure development.
Besides, the programme, which is funded by the Royal Danish and Norwegian Embassies, also aims at developing the capacity of the government and civil society men to bring improvements in the social services, a senior official of IOM, requesting anonymity, told the FE.
He said the programme also intends to protect and assist victims of the crime with livelihood assistance and effectively prosecute those who organise and benefit from it.
Eleven NGOs in 22 source districts in partnership with ten ministries and various government agencies will implement the programme, the IOM official source said.
When asked, he said the programme will cost $3.1 million.
Sources in the ministry concerned said special attention under the programme will be paid to particularly vulnerable groups such as single women, adolescent girls and children.
Awareness raising activities will also target schoolchildren, parents and teachers as well as local government officials, law enforcement agencies and members of the judiciary to achieve the ultimate goal of the programme to prevent human trafficking through ensuring economic emancipation of the vulnerable groups, they said.
In doing so, sources said, the current focus of the programme is on data collection, policy dialogue and dissemination of good practices, and pilot project implementation under this programme.
They said the human trafficking is an issue of concern for Bangladesh and it needs to be tackled in a comprehensive way.
Women and girls are mostly trafficked for the hard labour, sexual exploitation and domestic work, while boys are exploited as beggars which hamper the image of the country abroad, sources said.
However, a ministry official said inward flow of remittances will increase as the expatriates Bangladeshis will send their earnings through formal channels when they become aware of the benefits of such facilities.
Activities in the remittance area, at this stage, aim at facilitating the development of policies and mechanisms to bring dynamism in remittance services, he added.