Migration cost for Bangladeshis is still highest in the region despite a slight decrease, says the 2022 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.
The report, released by the US State Department on Wednesday, also points out that Rohingyas and poor migration seekers become frequent victims to trafficking.
This year, Bangladesh has remained on Tier 2 as it made key progress to combat human trafficking by increasing investigations, prosecutions, and convictions against human traffickers, the state department says.
However, there is still much work to be done to identify and care for trafficking victims and eliminate the exploitation of labourers seeking to work overseas, it adds.
Stating the vulnerability of Rohingya refugees, the report says traffickers exploit Rohingya men, women, and children from refugee camps in sex and labour trafficking both within Bangladesh and transnationally.
"Traffickers transport Rohingya girls within Bangladesh to Chittagong and Dhaka and transnationally to India, Malaysia, and Nepal for sex trafficking, sometimes using false promises of jobs or marriage; some traffickers 'trade' these girls over the internet".
The report finds that local criminal networks take Rohingya women from refugee camps at night, exploit them in sex trafficking, and bring them back to the camps during the day.
"International organizations allege some Bangladeshi officials facilitate trafficking of Rohingya, including accepting bribes from traffickers to gain access to camps."
"Rohingya girls and boys are recruited from camps and forced to labor as shop hands, fishers, rickshaw pullers, and domestic workers," the report added.
Bangladesh hosts nearly one million Rohingya in refugee camps and host communities in Cox's Bazar near the Burmese border and in other parts of the country, approximately 750,000 of whom arrived after August 2017.
Quoting NGOs and humanitarian officials, the report says Rohingyas' statelessness and inability to receive formal schooling or to work legally have increased their vulnerability to traffickers.
Tourists increase demand for child sex tourism, including exploitation of Rohingya girls, near Cox's Bazar, it adds.
Bangladesh is the world's sixth largest migrant-sending country and the eighth largest country receiving remittances, according to an international organisation.
According to the report, traffickers exploit some Bangladeshi men, women, and children who migrate willingly to work in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, especially Brunei, Malaysia, and the Maldives, in forced labour.
Traffickers also exploit Bangladeshis in forced labour in South Asia, Southern and Eastern Africa, Europe, and the United States. Many Bangladeshis migrate for work each year through illegal channels, and traffickers target them.
The number of migrants attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean increased significantly during the reporting period, and many migrants fell victim to trafficking before leaving Bangladesh or while en route to Europe, the report adds.
"Before departure, many workers assume debt to pay high recruitment fees, imposed legally by recruitment agencies belonging to BAIRA and illegally by unlicensed sub-agents; this places workers at risk of debt-based coercion."
Although one study finds that the cost of migration has decreased slightly in recent years, Bangladeshi workers continue to pay the highest migration fees in the region, says the report.
"Some recruitment agencies, agents, and employers also commit recruitment fraud, including contract switching; this includes promising women and children jobs and exploiting them in sex trafficking upon arrival."
"Some People's Republic of China (PRC) national traffickers force Bangladeshi women, specifically indigenous women from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, into sex trafficking and domestic servitude through arranged marriages," adds the report.
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