BSS, Dhaka :
Trafficking has emerged as one of the worst form of human rights violation of woman and children. An estimated 1-2 million women and children are trafficked annually around, generally for the purpose of forced labor, commercial sexual exploitation or domestic servitude.
Zubayer, a young street boy from Dhaka, was a camel jockey in Dubai for 5 years. He said, six years ago while he was playing in the street some random guy offered him some chocolate. He took it and after that he only remembered he was in a locked room. Later he was sent to Dubai where he saw hundreds of children like him who was jockeying against their will.
Many trafficked persons are lured and deceived by false promises of good jobs or marriage and some are bought, abducted, kidnapped, coerced, threatened with force or used as debt bondage. Some of these women and children are trafficked with the tacit consent of their poverty-stricken families.
According to the country report 2012 by Ministry Of Home Affairs, 422 people were trafficked in the year 2012. Statistics provided by some non-government organizations (NGOs) said about 200 women are smuggled out of the country per month. Over the last 30 years, a large number of women and children were smuggled out to India and Pakistan.
The most common destinations for these unfortunate women and children are India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Lebanon, Iraq, South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia and Eastern Europe.
There are as many as 18 transit points along the India-Bangladesh border through which children and women are smuggled out of the country.
For entering India through Kolkata, the two most common routes are the Benapol border in Jessore from where almost 50 percent of the trafficking takes place and Satkhira. According to the 2012 TIP Report of the U.S. State Department, Bangladesh does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Bangladesh has enacted a new law in 2000 (amended in 2003) titled “The Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000” to stop the trafficking of woman and children.
The Act also establishes a special tribunal, Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal, for prosecuting specific offenses against women and children (i.e. trafficking, kidnapping, demand for ransom, rape, death for dowry, sexual harassment, assault using inflammable substances, etc.).
This law not only provides speedy trial of traffickers but also ensure their punishment up to life long imprisonment, even death sentence. The government has also adopted three major national polices – the Policy for the Advancement of Women of 2011, the Child Labor Elimination Policy of 2010 and the Child Rights Policy of 2011 – all of which will have strong impacts on anti-trafficking measures generally.
According to the information published by BGB (Bangladesh Border Guards), they have successfully recovered 3279 women and children between the year 2006 and 2013 while the number of apprehended traffickers was 106. According to the information published by Bangladesh Police, the number of victims recovered in 2014 so far is 140.
According to the information published by Ministry of Home Affairs, they have set up national and district committees, set up monitoring cells, continued awareness raising programme, started reporting trafficking situation annually, set up a vigilant task force at the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEWOE), and considered legal reforms.
Besides, the government has set up a taskforce for Rescue, Recovery, Repatriation and Integration (RRRI) of trafficked women and children. Media has also taken a special programme to support the social resistance against trafficking.
There are also some NGOs who have taken initiatives against this heinous act. Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), initiated a new programme:
“The Prevention of Cross Border Trafficking in Women and Children between Bangladesh and West Bengal, India (C-BAT)”, supported by the European Commission and Irish Aid, and working closely with two Indian non-governmental organizations – the Socio Legal Aid Research and Training Centre and the Women’s Interlink Foundation, in October 2005.
It aims to reduce human trafficking and focuses on repatriation, reintegration and rehabilitation of the victims.
Efforts have been directed to building a social movement to prevent human trafficking through regular community meetings, mass dramas, seminars, and discussions, especially in Bangladesh’s border areas.
