The Home Ministry yesterday issued a fresh note of warning against human trafficking reminding traffickers of death penalty as punitive measure for their acts under a 2012 law alongside other steps to stop the phenomenon particularly in sea routes, exposing victims to extreme life risks.
“The government has enacted a law – The Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act, 2012 – on February 20, 2012 with provision of death penalty and life terms as highest punishments,” the home ministry said in a statement.
It added that the government decided to stage a meeting of an anti-trafficking national committee in every two months with senior secretary in charge of the home ministry in the chair to review the security and motivational campaigns against the trend.
The statement said in line with a previously taken decision of the national committee, counter-trafficking committees were already formed at every district, upazila and union levels at the grassroots to create social awareness and observe the situation.
The national committee was earlier formed with representatives of both the government and non-government organizations.
The statement recalled that National Work Plan of Action (2012-2014) for combating human trafficking was earlier implemented through close cooperation between the people of different sections and the law enforcement agencies.
The document at that time suggested the law enforcement agencies be equipped with more training and logistics in view of the international nature of the crime while “it is an international problem”.
“Now with an objective to spearhead a more coordinated campaign against the human trafficking a new National Work Plan of Action for 2015-2017 has been formulated which will be published soon,” it said.
