Bangladesh’s position is upgraded to Tier-2 from watch list’ in the US ‘Trafficking in Persons’ report released on early Friday.
The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period; therefore Bangladesh was upgraded to Tier 2, the report says.
However it also mentions that the government of Bangladesh does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so, the report said.
Bangladesh foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen lauded the report as welcome news and said that Bangladesh could be seriously affected economically if its position slipped further.
“This is a good news for us. If we could not upgrade our position it would be bad for us as we would be deprived of many development assistances from the US and development agencies like World Bank and IMF” the minister said reacting to the report.
The efforts for which Bangladesh is upgraded includes convicting more traffickers, modestly increasing the number of victims identified, acceding to the 2000 UN TIP Protocol, and at the close of the reporting period establishing seven anti-trafficking tribunals as stipulated in Bangladesh’s anti-trafficking law.
While Bangladesh moved up in the anti-trafficking ranking, four Southeast Asian countries did not change their standing from the 2019 report.
But the more than 500-page report pointed out that Bangladesh fell short elsewhere.
“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” the report says.
In addition, the government continued to allow humanitarian access to the Rohingya camps.
It also alleges that 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.
“While international organisations 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 labour”.
The report points finger to the Bureau of Manpower and Employment Training (BMET) and says that the agency 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.
BMET also forced some migrant workers to arbitrate labor violations with their exploitative recruitment agencies without representation, it says.
The report blames the Bangladesh government for continuing to allow employers to charge high recruitment fees to migrant workers and for not consistently taking action against illegall recruitment sub-agents, which left workers vulnerable to traffickers.
“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 says.
However the minister said along with the foreign ministry, law ministry, home ministry, expatriate welfare ministry and social welfare ministry were working to combat trafficking.
Out of 403 cases, 312 were disposed by the trafficking tribunal, the minister said adding that licenses of 162 recruiting agencies were suspended for their involvement in illegal trafficking.
He urged the people to be more cautious while sending their relatives abroad so that they cannot be the victim of the traffickers.
