eliminating human trafficking
Dhaka doesn�t comply with standards:US
Elimination of human trafficking
Despite making significant efforts, Bangladesh does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking, the United States said in a report on Monday. The Government of Bangladesh does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so, said the 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report, released by the US Department of State in Washington. The government continued to prepare, but did not finalise, the implementing rules for the 2012 Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act (PSHTA) during the year, it observed. The government lacked a formal mechanism to refer trafficking victims to protective services, said the report, released by US Secretary of State John Kerry. The government made limited efforts to protect victims of trafficking. The government reported the rescue of 2,621 victims in 2014, an increase from 1,090 in 2013; of those rescued in 2014, 2,218 were men, 227 women, and 176 children. Because the government continued to lack a formal mechanism for authorities to refer victims to care, only nine of the 2,621 victims identified were placed in government-operated shelters, it said.
Bangladesh is primarily a source, and, to a lesser extent, a transit and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking, the report said.
Some Bangladeshi men and women who migrate willingly to work in the Middle East, East Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States, subsequently face conditions indicative of forced labour, it pointed out.
Within the country, it added that some children and adults are subjected to sex trafficking, domestic servitude, and forced and bonded labour, in which traffickers exploit an initial debt assumed by a worker as part of the terms of employment.
The report recommended that the government should finalise, adopt, and disseminate the implementing rules for the PSHTA, and train government officials on its implementation.
The government did not provide services specifically designed for victims of trafficking, but victims could access support services for vulnerable people through nine multipurpose shelters, drop-in centres, and safe homes administered by the social welfare ministry. NGOs provided shelter and services specifically for trafficking victims; police sometimes referred victims to these services on an ad hoc basis. The government continued to operate shelters in its embassy in Riyadh and consulate in Jeddah for female Bangladeshi workers fleeing abusive employers; however, overall, officials lacked resources in destination countries to adequately assist labour trafficking victims. Bangladeshi migrant workers could lodge complaints and seek government arbitration on labour and recruitment violations, including allegations of forced labour, with the Bureau for Manpower, Education, and Training (BMET). The arbitration process provided victims with remediation, but rewards were often minimal and did not adequately address illegal activities, including alleged fraud by licensed recruitment agencies.
The PSHTA provided for victim protection during judicial proceedings, including police security and the ability to testify via video, but it is unclear how frequently officials employed such protections. NGOs noted that insufficient protection resulted in fewer investigations and prosecutions overall. The governments of Bangladesh and India coordinated the rescue and repatriation of child trafficking victims through established standard operating procedures; however, the PSHTA did not provide legal alternatives to the removal of foreign victims of trafficking to countries where they might face hardship or retribution. Unregistered Rohingya refugee trafficking victims may have been at risk of indefinite detention because they lack documentation, it noted.
The report also made the following observations. The government made limited efforts to prevent trafficking, and continued to allow the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) to set extremely high and legal recruitment fees and did not exercise adequate oversight to ensure BAIRAs licensing and certification practices did not facilitate debt bondage of Bangladeshi workers abroad. In 2014, the BMET cancelled four recruitment agencies licenses, the same number as in 2013, and awarded compensation of Tk. 1,393,500 (USD 17,800) to seven trafficking victims who received legal support to file against the recruitment agencies from a foreign government. In February 2015, the government signed a labour export agreement with Saudi Arabia, dictating employers should cover migration costs, including plane fares and medical tests; however, the government did not stipulate the maximum cost or eliminate the processing fee that remained the responsibility of the migrant.
