Justice eludes 21 victims of human trafficking

It is unfortunate that the families of 21 victims of illegal trafficking, as reported in The Daily Star on Sunday, have not yet found redress of their complaints even after a year and a half since cases were filed in 2019. And that is because the investigating agencies have not been able to collect enough evidence to proceed with the cases.

Bangladesh is one of the top 10 countries from where people migrate to seek better fortunes abroad. In doing so, they sacrifice everything with only one hope—to improve their condition and that of their dependents. But when does one give one's last penny to go abroad looking for a job? What should one make of our economic and social conditions when, according to the chief of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Bangladesh, nearly three quarters of a million Bangladeshis choose to migrate abroad every year?

Unfortunately, the more vulnerable among the migrants fall prey to local and foreign traffickers, getting themselves into all kinds of horrid situations. Of relatively recent innovation is migrants being taken hostage by the foreign traffickers, into whose clutches these unfortunate fortune seekers land ultimately. The international syndicates with whom the local syndicates have a deep link demand money from their relatives in Bangladesh in return for their freedom. Unfortunately, many of the trafficked victims go missing altogether.

Illegal migration and human trafficking—one of the most serious socio-economic problems—has sullied our image abroad as a developing country and brought into question our development priorities. Unfortunately, employment at home has become quite scarce and more expensive than getting a job outside the country, for which people are willing to risk their lives even. But there is a lack of due diligence on the part of various agencies of the government to stop this phenomenon.

There are certain realities that must be acknowledged if this scourge is to be efficiently addressed. Firstly, we must purge from our minds that it is only the indigent and the illiterate who seek employment abroad. The fact is, many well-educated individuals with university degrees are among the 700,000 or so illegal migrants who leave the county every year. It's economics that acts as the driving factor. Paying bribes for a job at home is much costlier than what the syndicates ask for to get them to their chosen destinations. Secondly, there is both the demand and supply side of the phenomenon. It is a myth that there is no demand for blue collar jobs outside. The reality is, according to experts, there is as much demand for menial and lowly paid jobs as there are for white collar jobs in many countries. Thirdly, the administration should not disown those Bangladeshis who are languishing in various countries, having gone there illegally. They are our citizens and must be brought back—at least for the sake of investigation and identifying the syndicates for the purpose of prosecuting and punishing them.

Without improving our socio-economic conditions and employment opportunities at home, and without identifying the syndicates and their external links, and without meting out severe punishments to the traffickers, the fertile ground provided by those seeking greener pastures abroad will continue to be harvested by the syndicates.