Human trafficking still remains major concern

Human trafficking is still a major concern which should be addressed through adopting an integrated approach by all relevant stakeholders in the country, said experts and rights activists on Monday.
They also suggested exemplary punishment to perpetrators and raising awareness of the people against human trafficking.
They were speaking at a national level consultation with stakeholders on Combating Human Trafficking and Irregular Migration. Brac Migration Programme organised the event on the eve of 'World Day against Trafficking in Persons' observed on July 30 every year.
Shariful Islam, head of BRAC migration programme, made a presentation on it showing that the people involved were convicted in 0.5 per cent cases of human trafficking between 2013 and 2018.
A total of 5,716 cases were filed during the last five years under the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act-2012.
People involved were convicted in 33 while 247 cases were disposed of. A total of 4,094 other cases were under trial, Shariful Islam said in his presentation.
Mr Islam said it was very unfortunate that Bangladesh was placed for a third time on the 'Tier 2 Watch List' of Trafficking In Person (TIP) report 2019.
He also said Bangladesh emerged the 5th highest labour sending country in the world. On average 100,000 workers went abroad by adopting unfair means each year.
Some 500,000 Bangladeshi workers returned home empty handed in the last 12 years, he also said.
He recommended raising awareness of the vulnerable community, implementation of the existing act and reintegration support to the victims.
Shah Alam, DIG (special investigation and intelligence) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), said a large amount of money is laundered through human trafficking from Bangladesh every year.
He said apart from recruiting agencies, Hajj and travel agencies also send workers abroad and in that case jobseekers are vulnerable to human trafficking. So these organisations should be brought under screening properly.
Mr Alam said the number of such dishonest people is not very high in the country. So it will be easy to bring the people to book by taking an integrated initiative.
Abu Bakar Siddiqui, additional secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, said migration is not a problem for Bangladesh. But there are many challenges to safe and orderly migration.
He also said maximum human trafficking incidents happened in the labour migration sector. Rohingya people also are vulnerable to human trafficking as it is easy to exploit them as they are stateless.
Referring to a media report that over 50,000 women and children are trafficked to India each year, he said it is a gossip as there are no authentic data, he said.
Nazrul Islam, acting chairman at the National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh (NHRCB), was the chief guest at the programme. He said it is needed to make concerted efforts to combat human trafficking.
He also emphasised review of the existing laws to make them more effective.
Maximum overseas job seekers are not well-informed of their work patterns in the host countries. So, awareness is very important to make them informed about jobs abroad.
Delivering closing remarks, Asif Saleh, acting executive director of BRAC, said a social movement should be waged against human trafficking. It is not possible to stop such a crime only through prosecution.

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