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Editorial

Government’s intervention urgent

Government’s intervention urgent


Bangladeshpost
Published : 08 Sep 2019 06:10 PM | Updated : 03 Sep 2020 12:52 PM


It is disconcerting news indeed that Bangladesh is one among many countries where human trafficking goes on quite regularly. It is a big transit point on human trafficking and is an important place for South Asia and the Middle East. With the temporary inclusion of the Rohingyas into Bangladesh borders they are being trafficked in new and modern ways to various South Asian countries including India and Nepal. Moreover, traffickers are also engaged in putting many women and young girls into sex-work through fraudulent means in the country too. 

According to a report by UNICEF, from the northern areas of the country nearly four thousand people are being trafficked to the neighbouring and various other countries.  Out of which 400 are children. In the last decade three lakh people including children between the ages 12 to 30 were trafficked. According to the National Human Council, in 2016, 58 people were trafficked and 128 went missing. 


Victims often do not return home after being 

trafficked, as a result, accurate numbers of 

trafficked people cannot be found


On a more recent note, data from police headquarters say that over 6 thousand people have been arrested on charges of human trafficking from 2013 to now but only 25 of them have been convicted. One cannot help but wonder what happened to the other 5 thousand 9 hundred 25 or so criminals? Are they still in the lock-up? Are they continuing their misdeeds? Why is the justice system not prompt enough to give their verdicts against this heinous crime?

Meanwhile, victims often do not return home after being trafficked, as a result, accurate numbers of trafficked people cannot be found. And it is not as if the less-educated are falling prey to trafficking syndicates; there are many educated people too who are mislead by traffickers. But with Rohingyas, it is as if the number of prey in the field has increased for the traffickers and they are taking full advantage of it. 

The authorities concerned should take prompt action to rid the society of this dark cloud which has been looming over our head for decades. At the moment Rohingyas are prime targets of the human traffickers and thus must be well monitored so that no major human rights disaster takes place.