Hold traffickers accountable

Washington has pressed Dhaka for holding human traffickers accountable for their crimes and supporting trafficking survivors.

Bryan Marcus, deputy director of the US State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Human Trafficking, discussed the issue during his meetings with the parliamentarians, officials of the foreign and home ministries, and civil society groups, during his visit to Dhaka on October 16-17.

Bangladesh has been ranked Tier-2 for the last two consecutive years, which is an improvement from the Tier-2 Watch List in the US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.

In an interview over emails with this newspaper, Bryan Marcus said the US recognises Bangladesh's increasing efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict traffickers. However, it does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

"The government did not uniformly employ standard operating procedures to identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations, resulting in the penalisation of some returning migrant workers and potential sex trafficking victims," Marcus said.

More than ten million Bangladeshis work abroad, and many of them assume debt to pay high recruitment fees, which places them at risk of debt-based coercion, the official said.

The 2022 TIP report suggested that Bangladesh take steps to eliminate recruitment fees charged and register and monitor the recruiting agents and brokers.

The government has not yet registered the sub-agents, while continuously failing to eliminate recruitment fees -- Tk 2.5 lakh to Tk 4 lakh per worker -- according to migrant activists and agents.

Marcus said political and civil instability and economic uncertainty exacerbate pre-existing human trafficking vulnerabilities.

"The most at-risk groups included victims of child marriage and gender-based violence, poor and marginalised persons, people who lost jobs due to the pandemic, seasonal labourers in India who were recruited from Bangladesh's northwestern districts, poorly educated and unemployed youth and students, people affected by natural disasters and climate change, members of the Rohingya community, and people attempting to reach other countries through irregular migration."

Marcus said climate crisis necessitates that governments everywhere sharpen their focus not only on reducing emissions to limit the severity of this crisis but also on mitigating the worst outcomes for vulnerable populations.

When climate crisis affects all, displaced populations, vulnerable migrants, indigenous communities, women and children, and minority populations are more likely to experience its impacts and, consequently, are likely to become even more vulnerable to exploitation, the US official said.

He said the US has announced a new $7.9 million project to prevent human trafficking in communities affected by the climate crisis in Bangladesh, with a focus on the farming and fishing industries.

"Global and government commitments to combat human trafficking and protect those most vulnerable from further exploitation must accelerate given such trends," Marcus said.