FE Report
Bangladeshi migrant workers are facing different types of problems at home and abroad due to lack of enforcement of relevant migration and anti-trafficking laws, rights campaigners said on Saturday.
They made the observations while speaking at a roundtable discussion on 'Counter-trafficking and Labour Migration Laws, Policies and Mechanisms in Bangladesh,' jointly organised by SAARCLAW and Solidarity Center Bangladesh at a city hotel.
About 3,500 cases were filed across the country since formulation of Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act 2012. But not a single case has been disposed of, said Barrister Lutfun Kadir while presenting a research paper at the roundtable.
She said court procedures were lengthy and there was no separate tribunal for quick disposal of these cases.
About Overseas Employment and Migration Act 2013, she said very little prosecution was taking place under this law since its enactment.
"Many victims and even law enforcers do not have proper knowledge about this act," she said.
Speaking as the chief guest, Supreme Court Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed said the government would have to be 'more labour-friendly' to implement the relevant laws to ensure their rights.
He also called for facilitating formal labour migration to reduce trafficking incidents.
WARBE Development Foundation chairman Syed Saiful Haque said the government has yet to prepare the rules on Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act, 2012.
He said there is no legal provision to bring middlemen, who cheat and exploit aspiring migrants with high costs that they were charging, under the overseas employment law enacted in 2013. Bangladesh Ovibashi Adhikar Forum Chairman Nazmul Ahsan alleged that the victimized migrants felt scared to file cases as the law enforcers harassed them.
Bangladeshi Ovhibashi Mohila Sramik Association director Sumaiya Islam, WARBE Development Foundation secretary general Faruque Ahmed, Supreme Court senior lawyer KM Saifuddin Ahmed, country programme director of Solidarity Center, Bangladesh Christopher K Johnson, among others, also spoke at the roundtable.
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