The Government of Bangladesh does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking, according to Trafficking in Persons Report, 2016 released by the United States Department of State yesterday.
However, it said that Dhaka is making significant efforts to meet the standards and that the government significantly increased trafficking investigations—with a notable increase in labor trafficking investigations from 12 cases in 2014 to 265 cases in 2015.
“Prosecutions also increased, and the government finalised and launched its 2015-2017 national action plan and continued to fund nine multipurpose shelters, drop-in centers, and safe homes, which were accessible to victims of trafficking,” said the report.
However, it said, “For the third consecutive year, the government continued to prepare but did not finalise the implementing rules for the 2012 Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act (PSHTA), thereby impeding the identification, rescue, and rehabilitation of trafficking victims.”
“Convictions decreased, and although complicity of some officials in trafficking offenses remained a serious problem, the government did not report any investigations, prosecutions, or convictions of government officials complicit in human trafficking offenses in 2015,” it added. The government reported identifying significantly fewer victims in 2015, and the government’s efforts to refer victims to care during the reporting period were unknown, said the report.
“The government remained without a formal mechanism to refer trafficking victims to protective services and did not provide adequate victim services,” it said. Placing Bangladesh in ‘Tier 2’, the report said Bangladesh is primarily a source and, to a lesser extent, a transit and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.
The report recommended that Bangladesh should finalise, adopt, and disseminate the implementing rules for the PSHTA, and train government officials on its use, take steps to eliminate all recruitment fees charged to workers by licensed labor recruiters and increase prosecutions and convictions, particularly of labor trafficking, while strictly respecting due process.