Qamrul for new act to protect witnesses

New act to protect witnesses during prosecution is required to reduce criminal activities such as human trafficking, said State Minister for Law Qamrul Islam yesterday.
He urged the home ministry to initiate the act as soon as possible.
The state minister was addressing as chief guest a daylong national level advocacy workshop on improvement of prosecutorial process of human trafficking cases.
Human rights organisation, Rights Jessore, with the supports of USAID and Winrock International, arranged the workshop at Cirdap Auditorium in the capital.
Telling the criminals as influential and wealthy, the state minister said socio-economical crises such as poverty and youth unemployment were the main causes behind human trafficking in the country.
The rights organisation presented a report based on study of 100 criminal cases under the “Human Trafficking (prevention and protection) Act-2012”.
The study conducted in Jessore, Narail and Satkhira districts, found that both the victims and witnesses remained vulnerable during investigation and prosecution.
In most cases, the criminals managed to escape punishment due to lack of proper investigation, said Binoy Krishna Mallick, executive director, Rights Jessore.