Dr. Matiur Rahman :
‘Human trafficking’ is a social disorder. Human trafficking is when a person is hidden, sheltered, or otherwise assisted for the purpose of selling or trafficking inside or outside his or her country. The thinking of some people in the backward areas of our country is that once they move abroad, their fortunes will change. Such ignorant people are especially the victims of deception. A class of anti-social miscreants has taken human trafficking as an easy way to earn money. In their temptation, many illegal immigrants have been buried in the deep sea or are being held hostage and detained by human traffickers and their lives are in extreme uncertainty.
Different reports explored that thousands of men, women and children are being trafficked abroad every year. But there are no accurate record of how many people are trafficked each year. People want to migrate to developed countries in the belief that they will be able to make a living. Traffickers take advantage of the simplicity of g people. These people are victims of trafficking as well as some other crimes. Such as cheating, forced physical and mental torture, forced sex, forced labor, ransom, drug trafficking, organ transplants, playing dangerous games and even killing many without money. Human trafficking is considered the most heinous crime because many crimes are organized together.
Bangladesh is at the top of the list of international organizations in terms of human trafficking. Unemployment, limited income, uncertainty of livelihoods and lure of prosperity create a situation that has increased the risk of human trafficking. The root causes of human trafficking are intensifying and it is feared that abuse and exploitation will be on the rise in coming days. Looking at recent trends and media headlines, it appears that traffickers are online platforms to lure potential victims of human trafficking; such as: using TickTock, WhatsApp etc.
Analyzing the incidents of human trafficking, it is understood that this heinous crime cannot be committed by a single person. There is a huge cycle behind this crime. There are links between the brokers of the countries where human trafficking takes place. This crime is committed through group planning. As an investigation comes up, human trafficking is calculated by the season. Traffickers select a season and smuggle people accordingly. They consider autumn and winter to be the season for trafficking, as the sea is relatively calm at this time, so they smuggle people in small boats to various countries, including Thailand and Malaysia. Human trafficking is growing at an alarming rate every year.
The government has taken a strict stand against the trafficking of women and children in the country. Special measures and programs have also been taken for the rehabilitation of rescued women and children. For the sake of social discipline, the provision of maximum death penalty has been laid down in the existing law for the suppression of crimes like human trafficking.
For the safety of the lives of men, women and children, human trafficking must be stopped and for this the conscious sections of the society have to build a strong social movement. It is very important to build public awareness activities and social movements across the country to prevent trafficking. To organise meetings, rallies, seminars, discussions and exchange of views at national and village levels to prevent human trafficking. It will have the active participation of representatives of local government, local leaders, teachers and religious leaders. They will play an active role in creating awareness among the people in their respective areas.
The media can play a big role in creating public awareness to prevent human trafficking. The media can regularly conduct public awareness programs and warnings. In the last few years, the media has been promoting various programs on this subject and the newspapers have been publishing objective news, features and investigative reports on a regular basis to prevent violence against women. However, the issue of human trafficking has not yet come up in the powerful media films. Film can play an active role in creating public awareness against human trafficking.
Human trafficking is one of the worst heinous crimes in modern civilization. Proper implementation of the existing Human Trafficking Act-2012, active actions of government and awareness programmes of NGOs can undoubtedly reduce the tendency to go abroad illegally. Besides, the law enforcement agencies should always take proactive and strict legal measures to eradicate such heinous crimes. Otherwise human trafficking will not stop.
(Dr. Matiur Rahman, Research Consultant, Human Development Research Centre, Dhaka).
