Bring them back immediately
The government should immediately engage with the countries concerned to ensure safe and quick return of the Bangladeshi trafficking victims perilously drifting at sea, said speakers at a workshop on human trafficking in the capital yesterday.
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of Bangladesh organised the workshop titled "Combating Human Trafficking and Repatriation of Victims: Role of Key Actors" at a Gulshan hotel.
Colonel Touhid, operations director at Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) headquarters, said it is urgently needed that the government engage with Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia to tackle the issue of human trafficking and the subsequent humanitarian crises.
“The crisis is complex due to the locally influential quarters. Furthermore, members of Counter Trafficking Committee are in some cases involved in human trafficking,” he said, adding BGB forces are doing their best to prevent trafficking.
He said it is also necessary to launch massive awareness campaigns to alert the gullible people to the false allure of overseas jobs particularly on private broadcasting media as only 1.8 percent people watch the state-run Bangladesh Television.
Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque said two teams of officials are now working on two groups of trafficked Bangladeshi people so that they could be brought back safely.
Tackling human trafficking from Bangladesh without a regional mechanism and without resolving the Rohingya refugee crisis is impossible, he said.
Haque called upon the Bangladesh Navy, the BGB and the police to play their roles accordingly in preventing human trafficking through the Bay of Bengal and the border areas.
Habibur Rahman, additional deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar, said, “The human catastrophe would not have reached this proportion had the Navy Coastguards and BGB played their roles accordingly.”
Commodore Sayeed, deputy director general of Bangladesh Coast Guard, said a memorandum of understanding with Myanmar was an immediate requirement to address the human trafficking issue, as the boats waiting in the Myanmar waters to carry trafficked people fall outside the purview of their supervision.
Pointing out that traffickers move through 80 points in Cox's Bazar and Teknaf with the help of local brokers, he said the 256 local brokers that the home ministry has already identified should immediately be brought to book no matter how powerful they are.
Cabinet Secretary Muhammad Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said there are comprehensive laws on preventing human trafficking but their implementation is weak and monitoring over their implementation is even weaker.
Mesbah Uddin Ahmed, deputy commissioner of Chittagong, said, “Relevant laws cannot be enforced due to different pressure groups.”
Shah Mujahid Uddin, upazila nirbahi officer of Teknaf, said Sita Pahar (hill) in Myanmar just 40 nautical miles away from Teknaf is a notorious base of human trafficking from Bangladesh and there should be some diplomatic ways to deal with it.
“Local administration cannot always play its role in preventing human trafficking due to involvement of local public representatives in the racket,” he said. “Moreover, it lacks the required fund and logistic supports.”
He said the trafficking racket in Myanmar abuses the mobile telephone signals from Bangladeshi operators' towers in the border area for telecommunications and mobile money transaction. This must be immediately restricted, he added.
Md Shah Alam, additional deputy inspector general of Police, said there are good laws prohibiting all kinds of human trafficking but legal actions are not taken against the traffickers as expected.
There are counter trafficking committees headed by a deputy commissioner at district levels, and upazila nirbahi officers at Upazila levels and UP chairmen at village levels. Still, human trafficking goes on, he said.
The big fishes involved in this heinous crime must be brought to book at least on charges of money laundering as a huge amount of money is laundered as ransom, he added.
Khushi Kabir, coordinator of Nijera Kori, said the government has to put an end to the culture of impunity and bring the culprits to book with an iron hand.
Kazi Reazul Hoque, full time member of the NHRC, chaired the workshop.
Comments