Speakers at a programme called for raising awareness at the grassroots level for prevention of human trafficking.
Migrants are often the target of traffickers and find themselves in situations that can result in debt bondage, forced labour, sexual exploitation, forced and illegal marriages, losing lives and other forms of modern slavery, they observed.
Bangladesh is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and child victims of human trafficking. All concerned particularly those at the grassroots level need to focus their efforts aimed at preventing exploitation of individuals by trafficking networks, they said.
“If the safe migration of migrants is not ensured, it would be a great setback to our economy”, they remarked while addressing a opinion exchange meeting titled “Counter-Trafficking Committee (CTC) Orientation” at No. 1 Hazratpur union parishad bhaban in Keraniganj Model thana of Dhaka district.
With the support of U.S Department of State, INCIDIN Bangladesh, a rights-based organization, and TdH Netherlands, a Netherlands-based development organization, jointly organized the event on Tuesday afternoon. Md. Anwar Hossain Aynal, Chairman of Hazratpur Union Parishad; attended as the chief guest, while A.K.M. Masud Ali, Executive Director of INCIDIN, chaired it.
As part of an anti-trafficking programme supported by U.S. Department of State, under the guidance of National Plan of Action to combat human trafficking in Bangladesh, Hazratpur Union Parishad recently formed a 35-member CTC comprising people from different professions, including public representatives.
Sophia Meulenberg, Political Officer, U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh; Andrew Grimmer, Foreign Affairs Officer, State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons; who came here shared their views with the new CTC at the meeting.
Both Sophia and Andrew hoped that CTC will perform their due role in combating trafficking.
Terming human trafficking as a serious human rights violation, other speakers said, all concerned must join their hands as the fight against trafficking and smuggling of migrants requires multi-stakeholder engagement.
Mahmudul Kabir, Bangladesh Country Director of Tdh Netherlands; Md. Ishtiak Ahmed, a lawyer; Rabindranath Das, Principal of Hazratpur High School; among others, spoke at the event.