Bangladesh does not fully comply with the minimum standard required for elimination of human trafficking, but it is making significant efforts to do so, according to the Trafficking in Persons Report 2013, released by the US State Department on Wednesday. Although the government drafted rules to implement the 2012 Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act (HTDSA) and began prosecuting cases under the law, lack of adequate law enforcement efforts and institutional weaknesses continued to contribute to the trafficking of Bangladeshi workers abroad, said the report, covering the period from January 1 to December 31, 2012.
The government took limited steps against the fraudulent recruitment agents and their unlicensed subagents. So, protection to victims of trafficking remained inadequate and a serious problem.
According to the report, as in the last year, Bangladesh remained at Tier-2 position in respect of elimination of human trafficking. Tier-2 means the government does not fully comply with the minimum standard under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000, but it is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with those standards.
Bangladesh is a source country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Some of the Bangladeshi men and women who migrate willingly to the Gulf, Maldives, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Europe, and elsewhere for work, subsequently face conditions of forced labor, such as restrictions on movement, withholding of passports, threats of force, physical or sexual abuse and threats of detention or deportation for immigration violations. Before their departure, many migrant workers run into debt for paying high recruitment fees, imposed legally by recruitment agencies belonging to the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) and illegally by their unlicensed sub-agents.
Some recruitment agencies and agents also commit recruitment fraud, including contract switching, in which they promise one type of job and conditions but later change them after arrival. Some women and children from Bangladesh are transported to India and Pakistan, where they are subjected to sexual exploitation or forced labor. Some in the Rohingya community in Bangladesh have also been subjected to human trafficking.
Within the country, some Bangladeshi children and adults are subjected to sex trafficking, domestic servitude and forced and bonded labor. Some street children are coerced into criminality or forced to beg; begging ringmasters sometimes maim children as a means to earn money. In some instances, children are sold into bondage by their parents, while others are induced into labor or sexual exploitation through fraud and physical coercion.
In some instances, girls and boys as young as eight years old, are subjected to forced prostitution within the country, living in slave-like conditions in secluded environments. Trafficking within the country often occurs from poorer rural regions to cities. Many brothel owners and pimps coerce Bangladeshi girls to take steroids to make them more attractive to clients, with devastating side effects.
The recommendations for Bangladesh include taking steps to sharply reduce recruitment fees charged by licensed labor recruiters, increasing efforts to prosecute trafficking cases and continuing training for government officials, including law enforcement, labor inspectors and immigration officers to implement HTDSA.
-With The Independent input
