Mere arrests in trafficking busts won’t work

Over the past few days, 23 women have been rescued from the hands of traffickers, of whom 22 were in three "safe houses" in Dhaka's Mirpur, Uttara and Tejgaon areas. Rab has also arrested 11 members of two human trafficking gangs that allegedly trafficked women to India and Middle Eastern countries, promising them a better life abroad. While we are relieved to hear that these women have been rescued, it is extremely concerning to find that these gangs are continuing to prey upon young women in the country.

According to a report in this daily, of the recently arrested traffickers, one group used to pose as a dance club and another group as agents for jobs in the Middle East. In the last one year, the latter trafficked around 30-35 women to Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Egypt, whereas the dance club racket has trafficked nearly 100 women since 2019 by promising their victims dance lessons that would get them jobs in India.

Could these women have been saved from their ordeal if the law enforcement agencies had been more vigilant? It appears so. In April 2019, the ringleader of the dance group, DJ Kamrul, was arrested by Badda police for trafficking a woman to India. According to the Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act, 2012, human trafficking comes with a penalty of five years to life imprisonment. Yet, Kamrul was in jail for only three months, after which he apparently went back to his criminal activities. How is it possible that even after being arrested and imprisoned, he was able to act with such impunity?

At a press briefing, Rab also revealed that they had identified eight different border routes that were being used by the dance club gang. These same routes, along with the safe houses, have been identified before, especially after the discovery of the TikTok trafficking ring. The authorities, on both sides of the border, must do more to dismantle these networks. It is unacceptable that traffickers are being identified, imprisoned and then allowed to return to their lives of crime.

According to anti-human trafficking NGOs, around 500,000 Bangladeshi women and children aged between 12 and 30 years have been illegally sent to India over the last decade. This is no small number. We urge the authorities to strictly implement the human trafficking prevention act and mete out exemplary punishment to traffickers, as well as provide rehabilitation support for trafficking victims so they are able to return to their families and communities.