NONE of over 3,500 cases filed under the counter-trafficking law across the country has disposed of since the formulation of the act. It has left the victims and their families in utter frustration. They are also deprived of getting remedy and compensations. Whereas the perpetrators are threatening them to withdraw the cases due to relax mood of police. Lengthy legal process and absence of separate tribunal have made the situation very critical. Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act was formulated in 2012 but its rules are not framed till the date, according to a newspaper report.
We know that recruitment agencies and their brokers lure the underemployed people arranging them decent job compel to sell their ancestral house, farmland or take loan at a high rate -particularly in the rural areas. Human Trafficking Monitoring Cell of Police Headquarters recorded that 114 trafficking cases in the first three months of the current year. The number of human trafficking cases increased to 778 in 2017 from 677 in 2016. We think, the government must be ‘more labour-friendly’ to execute the relevant laws to protect the rights of the country’s migrant workers.
Experts called for facilitating formal labour migration to reduce trafficking incidents. It is urgently necessary to reduce procrastination in the existing legal system. By this time, the trafficking victims should be given psychosocial counseling to help them recover from the trauma.
It’s a complete shambles that Parliament had enacted an excellent law but the authorities are yet to take any step to implement it. On the other hand the traffickers are enjoying privilege. In some cases police hesitate to touch them due to close linkage with the ruling high-ups. A Thai court in 2017 sentenced an army general to 27 years’ jail in a landmark human trafficking trial that focused regional attention on the lucrative underworld trade. But not a small fry in Bangladesh has faced such trial.
As unemployment rate is exorbitant, we think the human trafficking may be increased due to lack of enforcement of laws. Here, the government must generate employment and increase legal migration facility to address the problem. Besides, cancellation of agency license those involve in the trafficking can also check the trouble. But first of all, the government should immediately frame the rules for the act to expedite the prosecution.
