Human trafficking in Bangladesh
Bily Ahmed | Friday, 27 June 2008
HUMAN trafficking has spread slavery to every continent and most countries. It goes on a par with the drugs and illegal arms trade ad is one of the most profitable forms of illegal activity.
Bangladesh is a source as well as transit for men, women and children trafficked for forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation.
Children - both girls and boys - are trafficked internally for commercial sexual exploitation, bonded labour, and other forms of forced labour.
Human trafficking is a highly profitable trade. Low in penal measure, it is appealing to small criminal rings and large-scale organised crime, forcing a growing number of people into slavery around the world.
Trafficking involves transporting people away from the communities in which they live, by the threat or use of violence, deception, or force so they can be exploited as forced or enslaved workers for sex or labour.
Because of its hidden nature, reliable statistics are hard to come by. A recent report by the United States Government, between 700,000 and two million women and children are trafficked across borders each year.
This figure does not include those who are trafficked within a country, nor does it count men who are trafficked.
Poverty lies at the root of this problem and in order for it to be end, the conditions that make it flourish need to be addressed.
Trafficking in Bangladesh: Tens of thousands of women and children are trafficked from Bangladesh each year. As Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world, poverty provides traffickers with people who have no alternatives for survival.
They trust the offers of work or marriage abroad. Though it all starts with the assurance of security, the victims finally find themselves in a state of slavery in stead. They are sent to India, Pakistan and countries in the Middle East. They are forced into marriage, domestic work, factory labour, and prostitution, often as bonded labour.
Everyday 50 Bangladeshi women are taken to India and sold there, Home Adviser Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin on June 18, told the inaugural ceremony of a new police investigation unit formed to strengthen fight against human trafficking.
The unit will initially have 12 police officials having specialised training on investigations into human trafficking at home and abroad.
The home adviser said poverty, land fragmentation, natural disasters, landlessness, and demand for dowry compel people of Bangladesh to search for opportunities abroad.
Large numbers of boys, as young as four, are abducted or their parents are tricked into sending them to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf States to be camel jockeys.
Excerpt from U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June 2008 is given below:
Estimates from UNICEF and other sources since 2004 suggest that between 10,000 and 29,000 children are exploited through prostitution in Bangladesh.
Some children are sold into bondage by their parents, while others are coerced into labour or commercial sexual exploitation through fraud and physical coercion.
The Centre for Women and Child Studies reports that trafficked boys are under 10 years old and trafficked girls are between 11 and 16 years old.
Women typically work as domestic servants; some find themselves in situations of forced labour when faced with limits on movement, non-payment of wages, threats, and physical or sexual abuse.
Bangladesh does not fully comply with the minimum standards for erasing trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so.
Recommendations for Bangladesh: Significantly increase criminal prosecutions and punishments for all forms of labour trafficking, including those that involve fraudulent recruiting and forced child labour; improve criminal law enforcement efforts against and punishment of government complicity in trafficking; and provide protection services for adult male trafficking victims and victims of forced labour.
Prosecution: The government prohibits the trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation or involuntary servitude under the Repression of Women and Children Act of 2000 (amended in 2003), and forbids the selling and buying of a minor under age 18 for prostitution.
Articles 372 and 373 of the penal code. Article 374 of Bangladesh's penal code prohibits forced labour, but the prescribed penalties of imprisonment for up to one year or a fine are not sufficiently stringent to deter the offence.
Prescribed penalties for sex trafficking are equal to those for other grave crimes, such as rape. Bangladesh lacks laws criminalizing the trafficking of adult males for commercial sexual exploitation.
Government efforts to criminally address labour forms of trafficking improved in some areas, but remained poor in the areas of bonded labour and forced child labour.
Bangladesh shut down five recruitment agencies and began four criminal prosecutions against labour recruitment firms.
The government arrested 76 individuals, started 19 investigations, and started 34 prosecutions for recruitment fraud. These cases are still under investigation or trial; thus, there were no related convictions during the reporting year.
The government of Bangladesh did not report specific information on any arrests, prosecutions, convictions, or punishments for forced child labour or bonded labour.
During the reporting period, the government opened 123 investigations, made 106 arrests, and initiated 101 prosecutions of sex trafficking offences. Nonetheless, the government reported 20 trafficking convictions this year - 23 fewer than last year.
Due to the length of court cases, many are resolved through illegal out-of-court settlements between victims and traffickers.
Life imprisonment sentences were imposed on 18 of the convicted traffickers and the remaining two convicted traffickers received sentences of 14 and 10 years' imprisonment.
Authorities conducted 20 investigations into government complicity in trafficking; no government officials, however, were prosecuted, convicted, or punished for complicity in trafficking because of a lack of enough evidence.
Protection: The Government of Bangladesh made some efforts to protect victims of trafficking during the reporting period.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs distributed guidelines to all Bangladeshi diplomatic missions on treating expatriate workers.
Although Bangladesh is not a destination country for trafficking, the government does not systematically offer foreign victims legal alternatives to their removal to countries of origin.
A continuing concern is the government's continued lack of efforts to protect victims of forced labour -who constitute a large proportion of trafficking victims in Bangladesh-as well as adult male victims of trafficking.
Prevention: Bangladesh made efforts to prevent trafficking in persons. The government reported efforts to prevent trafficking through memoranda of understanding with destination countries addressing destination countries' labour laws, requirements for labour contracts, and mechanisms for labour flows, although such agreements are not yet publicly available and they do not appear to comprehensively address trafficking issues.
Domestically, the government continued to air a broad public awareness campaign warning potential victims of the risks of sex trafficking through various media.
In addition, airport authorities screen travellers to identify and interdict potential victims and traffickers before they leave the country.
Following Cyclone Sidr, police proactively looked out for women and children who were vulnerable to trafficking due to displacement.
The Government of Bangladesh trains peacekeepers on trafficking prior to deployment.
Bangladesh did not report any actions taken to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts over the year. Bangladesh has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.
Upshot: It is hoped with formation of "Trafficking in Human Beings (THB) Investigation Unit" within the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) with Additional Deputy Inspector General Abdul Jalil as its head, will curb the human trafficking.
The writer is a tea planter, columnist and researcher
Bangladesh is a source as well as transit for men, women and children trafficked for forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation.
Children - both girls and boys - are trafficked internally for commercial sexual exploitation, bonded labour, and other forms of forced labour.
Human trafficking is a highly profitable trade. Low in penal measure, it is appealing to small criminal rings and large-scale organised crime, forcing a growing number of people into slavery around the world.
Trafficking involves transporting people away from the communities in which they live, by the threat or use of violence, deception, or force so they can be exploited as forced or enslaved workers for sex or labour.
Because of its hidden nature, reliable statistics are hard to come by. A recent report by the United States Government, between 700,000 and two million women and children are trafficked across borders each year.
This figure does not include those who are trafficked within a country, nor does it count men who are trafficked.
Poverty lies at the root of this problem and in order for it to be end, the conditions that make it flourish need to be addressed.
Trafficking in Bangladesh: Tens of thousands of women and children are trafficked from Bangladesh each year. As Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world, poverty provides traffickers with people who have no alternatives for survival.
They trust the offers of work or marriage abroad. Though it all starts with the assurance of security, the victims finally find themselves in a state of slavery in stead. They are sent to India, Pakistan and countries in the Middle East. They are forced into marriage, domestic work, factory labour, and prostitution, often as bonded labour.
Everyday 50 Bangladeshi women are taken to India and sold there, Home Adviser Maj Gen (retd) MA Matin on June 18, told the inaugural ceremony of a new police investigation unit formed to strengthen fight against human trafficking.
The unit will initially have 12 police officials having specialised training on investigations into human trafficking at home and abroad.
The home adviser said poverty, land fragmentation, natural disasters, landlessness, and demand for dowry compel people of Bangladesh to search for opportunities abroad.
Large numbers of boys, as young as four, are abducted or their parents are tricked into sending them to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf States to be camel jockeys.
Excerpt from U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June 2008 is given below:
Estimates from UNICEF and other sources since 2004 suggest that between 10,000 and 29,000 children are exploited through prostitution in Bangladesh.
Some children are sold into bondage by their parents, while others are coerced into labour or commercial sexual exploitation through fraud and physical coercion.
The Centre for Women and Child Studies reports that trafficked boys are under 10 years old and trafficked girls are between 11 and 16 years old.
Women typically work as domestic servants; some find themselves in situations of forced labour when faced with limits on movement, non-payment of wages, threats, and physical or sexual abuse.
Bangladesh does not fully comply with the minimum standards for erasing trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so.
Recommendations for Bangladesh: Significantly increase criminal prosecutions and punishments for all forms of labour trafficking, including those that involve fraudulent recruiting and forced child labour; improve criminal law enforcement efforts against and punishment of government complicity in trafficking; and provide protection services for adult male trafficking victims and victims of forced labour.
Prosecution: The government prohibits the trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation or involuntary servitude under the Repression of Women and Children Act of 2000 (amended in 2003), and forbids the selling and buying of a minor under age 18 for prostitution.
Articles 372 and 373 of the penal code. Article 374 of Bangladesh's penal code prohibits forced labour, but the prescribed penalties of imprisonment for up to one year or a fine are not sufficiently stringent to deter the offence.
Prescribed penalties for sex trafficking are equal to those for other grave crimes, such as rape. Bangladesh lacks laws criminalizing the trafficking of adult males for commercial sexual exploitation.
Government efforts to criminally address labour forms of trafficking improved in some areas, but remained poor in the areas of bonded labour and forced child labour.
Bangladesh shut down five recruitment agencies and began four criminal prosecutions against labour recruitment firms.
The government arrested 76 individuals, started 19 investigations, and started 34 prosecutions for recruitment fraud. These cases are still under investigation or trial; thus, there were no related convictions during the reporting year.
The government of Bangladesh did not report specific information on any arrests, prosecutions, convictions, or punishments for forced child labour or bonded labour.
During the reporting period, the government opened 123 investigations, made 106 arrests, and initiated 101 prosecutions of sex trafficking offences. Nonetheless, the government reported 20 trafficking convictions this year - 23 fewer than last year.
Due to the length of court cases, many are resolved through illegal out-of-court settlements between victims and traffickers.
Life imprisonment sentences were imposed on 18 of the convicted traffickers and the remaining two convicted traffickers received sentences of 14 and 10 years' imprisonment.
Authorities conducted 20 investigations into government complicity in trafficking; no government officials, however, were prosecuted, convicted, or punished for complicity in trafficking because of a lack of enough evidence.
Protection: The Government of Bangladesh made some efforts to protect victims of trafficking during the reporting period.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs distributed guidelines to all Bangladeshi diplomatic missions on treating expatriate workers.
Although Bangladesh is not a destination country for trafficking, the government does not systematically offer foreign victims legal alternatives to their removal to countries of origin.
A continuing concern is the government's continued lack of efforts to protect victims of forced labour -who constitute a large proportion of trafficking victims in Bangladesh-as well as adult male victims of trafficking.
Prevention: Bangladesh made efforts to prevent trafficking in persons. The government reported efforts to prevent trafficking through memoranda of understanding with destination countries addressing destination countries' labour laws, requirements for labour contracts, and mechanisms for labour flows, although such agreements are not yet publicly available and they do not appear to comprehensively address trafficking issues.
Domestically, the government continued to air a broad public awareness campaign warning potential victims of the risks of sex trafficking through various media.
In addition, airport authorities screen travellers to identify and interdict potential victims and traffickers before they leave the country.
Following Cyclone Sidr, police proactively looked out for women and children who were vulnerable to trafficking due to displacement.
The Government of Bangladesh trains peacekeepers on trafficking prior to deployment.
Bangladesh did not report any actions taken to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts over the year. Bangladesh has not ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol.
Upshot: It is hoped with formation of "Trafficking in Human Beings (THB) Investigation Unit" within the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) with Additional Deputy Inspector General Abdul Jalil as its head, will curb the human trafficking.
The writer is a tea planter, columnist and researcher