Migration cost for Bangladeshis is still the highest in the region despite a slight reduction, said the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report 2022.
The report, released by the US State Department on Wednesday, also pointed out that Rohingyas and poor migration seekers become frequent victims of trafficking.
This year, the government of Bangladesh remained on Tier 2 making key progress to combat human trafficking by increasing investigations, prosecutions, and convictions against human traffickers, the state department said.
However, there is still much work to be done to identify and care for trafficking victims and eliminate the exploitation of labourers seeking to work overseas, the state department said.
Stating the vulnerability of the refugees, the report said that the traffickers exploit Rohingya men, women, and children from the refugee camps in sex and labour trafficking, both within Bangladesh and transnationally.
“Traffickers transport Rohingya girls from the camps to Chattogram and Dhaka as well as transnationally to India, Malaysia, and Nepal for sex trafficking, sometimes using false promises of jobs or marriage; some traffickers “trade” these girls over the internet”.
The report finds that local criminal networks take Rohingya women from the refugee camps at night, exploit them in sex trafficking, and bring them back to the camps during the day.
“International organisations allege some Bangladeshi officials facilitate the trafficking, including accepting bribes from traffickers to gain access to the camps.”
“Rohingya girls and boys are recruited from camps and forced to labour as shop hands, fishers, rickshaw pullers, and domestic workers,” the report added.
Bangladesh hosts nearly one million Rohingya in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, near the Burmese border, and in other parts of the country, approximately 750,000 of whom arrived after August 2017.
Quoting NGOs and humanitarian officials, it said that the statelessness and inability of the Rohingya to receive formal schooling or to work legally have increased their vulnerability to traffickers.
It also said that tourists increase demand for child sex tourism, including exploitation of Rohingya girls, in Cox’s Bazar.
Bangladesh is the world’s sixth largest migrant-sending country and the eighth largest country receiving remittances, according to an international organisation.
According to the report, traffickers exploit some Bangladeshi men, women, and children who migrate willingly to work in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, especially Brunei, Malaysia, and the Maldives, in forced labour.
Traffickers also exploit Bangladeshis in forced labour in South Asia, Southern and Eastern Africa, Europe, and the United States. Many Bangladeshis migrate for work each year through illegal channels, and traffickers target them.
The number of migrants attempting to reach Europe via the Mediterranean increased significantly, and many migrants fell victims to trafficking before leaving Bangladesh or while en route to Europe’ the report added.
“Before departure, many workers assume debt to pay high recruitment fees, imposed legally by recruitment agencies belonging to BAIRA and illegally by unlicenced sub-agents; the workers are at risk of debt-based coercion.”
Although one study found that the cost of migration has decreased slightly in recent years, Bangladeshi workers continue to pay the highest migration fees in the region, said the report.
“Some recruitment agencies, agents, and employers also commit recruitment fraud, including contract switching; this includes promising women and children jobs and exploiting them in sex trafficking upon arrival.”
“Some People’s Republic of China (PRC) national traffickers force Bangladeshi women, specifically indigenous women from the Chittagong Hill Tracts, into sex trafficking and domestic servitude through arranged marriages,” it said.
