Special Correspondent from Washington
“There are massive reports of complicity of government officials involved in trafficking,” said United States Ambassador-at-Large John Cotton Richmond.
Ambassador Richmond made the comment in reply to a question on Bangladesh at the Foreign Press Center’s videoconference briefing on Thursday.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released the US State Department Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report for the year 2020.
At the virtual briefing from Just News BD M Mushfiqul Fazal asked “Bangladesh situation is alarming in terms of human trafficking. You mentioned the end of the last month in Libya, 35 Bangladeshi people died.; human traffickers attacked the Bangladeshi migrants. And the reason I am telling, a Bangladeshi lawmaker Shahid Islam, arrested in Kuwait for his alleged involvement in human trafficking and money laundering, official confirmed on June 7th. His wife is also amember of parliament. Transparency International, TIB, has termed the involvement of a lawmaker in human trafficking and money laundering is a just – a just disrespectful example of mischief in Bangladesh politics and public representation.
“I mean, the policy – the parliament member, they are also involved in human trafficking and current regime is very much reluctant on that issue. So how you would describe this situation, particularly on Bangladesh, Ambassador Richmond?
In reply Ambassador Richmond said, “Glad you asked about that, and interestingly, Bangladesh was on the Tier 2 Watch List for the last several years. And so this year, Bangladesh actually moved up to Tier 2. Bangladesh is a complicated place, as you know, and there’s many different aspects of trafficking that are going on there. We’ve had a number of concerns of what we’ve seen.”
Ambassador Richmond further said, “First, let me start with some positives. They finally, after several years, established tribunals – courts that are specifically focused on trafficking in persons. We thought that was a positive. They also increased the number of victims that they identified since the last reporting period. And they convicted far more traffickers than they have in prior years, and we saw these as serious and sustained efforts that would warrant an upgrade.”
He said, “But I do want to be clear. Although they had some increases in convictions, they had a decrease in the number of investigations. There are massive reports of complicity of government officials involved in trafficking. And one of my particular concerns is that they are taking very little efforts to do any sex trafficking investigations in the brothels in the capital, and they are some of the largest brothels in the world.”
“We are deeply concerned about sex trafficking within those brothels and call upon the government to increase its investigations. We’ve heard lots of claims both of adults who are coerced into sex trafficking as well as minors where coercion isn’t even a question. If there’s a minor there, we know it’s sex trafficking” he added.
Mentioning forced labor victims issue in the Gulf Ambassador Richmond said, “There’s also many, many Bangladesh citizens have been identified as forced labor victims in the Gulf, including in Saudi Arabia. And we’ve called upon the government to investigate those cases and the connections that there may be within Bangladesh to migrants who are going there and perhaps being compelled to work.”
“There’s also a concern around recruitment fees in Bangladesh, and we’re deeply concerned about how recruitment fees might be used as a way that traffickers are coercing individuals, including how they’re operating perhaps as – subagents of recruiters are operating illegally”, he further said.
Terming Rohingya issue as a ‘massive challenge’ Ambassador Richmond said, “And then finally, a massive challenge is perhaps in Cox’s Bazar. And I had the privilege of getting to visit Bangladesh and getting down to Cox’s Bazar. Concerned about the Rohingya and the vulnerabilities that they face around trafficking, and I think there needs to be far more done to investigate trafficking there.”
He further said, “So we do recognize the positives and some of the progress Bangladesh has made. Grateful for the consistent engagement by our ambassador there, Ambassador Miller, who’s been a champion of this issue and consistently brought it up to the government. So there’s good work that has been done, and there’s much, much more work that has to be done in the future.”
The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report in its Bangladesh chapter said, “The government of Bangladesh does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.”
It said the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas.
The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period; therefore Bangladesh was upgraded to Tier 2, said the report.
“Law enforcement decreased investigations into trafficking cases, continued to deny credible reports of official complicity in trafficking, and, despite hundreds of credible reports of forced labor and sex trafficking of Rohingya, did not open investigations to verify these reports”, according to Bangladesh part of the report.
Despite widespread reports of child sex trafficking, including in licensed brothels, the government did not make efforts to identify victims or investigate the persistent reports, it said.
“While international organizations identified more than 1,000 potential Bangladeshi forced labor victims in Saudi Arabia during the reporting period, the government did not report efforts to provide the majority with services or criminally investigate allegations of forced labor”, says the US report.
“Moreover, the agency charged with certifying citizens for work abroad, the Bureau of Manpower and Employment Training (BMET), allowed recruitment agencies to exclude from required pre- departure trainings information on human trafficking, specifically how to file a complaint against one’s employer or recruitment agency”, it said.
BMET also forced some migrant workers to arbitrate labor violations with their exploitative recruitment agencies without representation.
The government continued to allow employers to charge high recruitment fees to migrant workers and did not consistently address illegally operating recruitment sub-agents, which left workers vulnerable to traffickers, according to the report.
It said victim care remained insufficient; officials did not consistently implement victim identification procedures or refer identified victims to care; foreign trafficking victims could not access protective services; and the government did not have shelter for adult male victims.
The report said, “The government increased convictions of traffickers but decreased investigations and did not take adequate steps to address internal sex trafficking or official complicity in trafficking, both of which remained pervasive. The 2012 Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act (PSHTA) criminalized sex trafficking and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties of five years to life imprisonment and a fine of not less than 50,000 Bangladeshi Taka (BDT) ($590).”
“Official complicity in human trafficking, trafficking-related corruption, and impunity for offenders remained serious concerns, inhibiting law enforcement action during the year. The government was reluctant to acknowledge or investigate such claims,” it added.
“Observers alleged some officials from district employment and manpower offices allegedly facilitated human trafficking, and some traffickers in rural areas had political connections that enabled them to operate with impunity. According to NGOs, some local politicians convinced victims to accept payment from recruitment sub-agents to not report fraudulent or exploitative labor recruitment actions to police. Other observers reported some police conducted slow and flawed investigations to allow traffickers to evade punishment, including when suspects were fellow officers,” the report read.
The report added, “A number of government officials, including parliamentarians, maintained close ties to foreign employment agencies, there were concerns such officials had conflicts of interest in approving migrant-friendly practices, such as prosecution of abusive recruitment agencies and increasing protections for migrant workers. In February 2020, media reported a Bangladeshi parliamentarian bribed Kuwaiti officials to bring more than 20,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers abroad on work visas that stipulated a different job and lower salaries than their contracts, and the parliamentarian then paid the workers the lesser wages or not at all.”
“Media reported that from 2015-2018, Malaysian employment agencies and 10 Bangladeshi recruitment agencies bribed officials and politicians in both countries to create a monopoly on recruitment of Bangladeshi workers. The monopoly increased the recruitment fees charged to workers from 37,000 BDT ($440) to more than 400,000 BDT ($4,710) per person—higher than the government’s legal maximum—which increased Bangladeshi migrant workers’ vulnerability to debtbased coercion,” it added.
The report said, “Despite continued reports of traffickers exploiting hundreds of Rohingya in forced labor and sex trafficking within Bangladesh, the only Rohingya-related cases reported by law enforcement involved movement via boat—cases that might have been migrant smuggling without elements of trafficking. The government did not establish clear legal reporting mechanisms within the camps, which impeded Rohingyas’ access to justice and increased impunity for offenders.”
“The Bangladeshi High Court did not entertain anti-trafficking cases filed by Rohingya, despite the law allowing Rohingya to file trafficking cases in Bangladeshi courts. International organizations alleged some Bangladeshi officials facilitated trafficking of Rohingya, including accepting bribes from traffickers to gain access to camps,” the report read.
YS
