DHAKA: Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh Md. Shahidul Haque on Friday categorically said Bangladesh was determined to go all the way to stop and reverse the trend of human trafficking.
He also said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Government considers the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in the Indian Ocean to be a direct challenge to its ‘zero tolerance’ approach to human trafficking.
Shahidul Haque was addressing the Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean on Friday (May 29) in Bangkok of Thailand.
The foreign secretary also thanked Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar for bringing the victims, some of whom rescued this month are reportedly Bangladesh nationals, to safety and providing them necessary humanitarian assistance.
He also said Bangladesh immediately ordered its foreign missions to collect antecedents of self identified Bangladeshis that said about 30 percent of the victims recently rescued were Bangladeshis.
He also said Bangladesh will repatriate them within the shortest possible time after concluding further test of verifying their nationality.
He also said the victims were allured or enticed by the traffickers with the false prospect of high-paid, secure jobs abroad, often without asking for any advance payment while some others were reported to have been tricked and forced on to the boats by the traffickers.
He emphasized that current wave of migration by sea is an irregular incident.
The secretary also talked about maintaining heightened surveillance, including through law enforcement agencies and local governments, to prevent further victimization or deception of Bangladeshis by the traffickers.
Shahidul Haque also said Bangladesh was guided by a robust policy framework under the legal domain of Palermo Convention in 2010, Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act in 2012, to its pursuit of peace and sustainable development.
He mentioned that in 2014, there were 682 trafficking related cases involving a total of 2,834 accused and among those convicted, 12 were sentenced to life imprisonment.
He further said Bangladesh has set up Counter-Trafficking Committees (CTC) up to the Union level, the lowest tier of the local government, ensured participation of relevant NGOs and CSOs in the CTCs at all administrative levels, operationalized a Monitoring Cell at the Police Headquarters to collect and analyse data on trafficking, set up a seamless intelligence network across concerned law enforcement and border security agencies, introduced counter-trafficking issues in training curricula for judicial, law enforcement and investigation agencies and developed an effective mechanism for victim protection and rehabilitation through GO-NGO partnership.
He also said the government ensured dissemination of counter-trafficking messaging through national broadcasting media and other means, enlisted the support of local opinion and religious leaders to transmit the messages and delivered the messages at the grass roots, through public meetings, folk theatres and musical concerts.
He also said Bangladesh actively promotes global, regional and bilateral plans and conventions to fight trafficking.
The secretary mentioned that the persistent efforts to combat human trafficking have been reflected in Bangladesh’s graduation to Tier II in the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report in 2012 that the country has maintained since then.
He also said along with civil society and NGO partners, Bangladesh has embarked on serious introspection to identify and address the weak links in its counter-trafficking regime for implementation challenges of enabling legal and administrative systems.
BDST: 1528 HRS, MAY 29, 2015
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