It is chilling that that every year 20,000 children are believed to go missing or are kidnapped from Bangladesh.
Most are understood to be taken across the border into India.
Human trafficking is a scourge which affects all ages and needs to be addressed across the board. The problem of child trafficking in particular needs to be attacked has a urgent priority.
We must build on work being undertaken with neighbouring countries like India and Nepal to strengthen anti-trafficking measures. The problem is particularly acute in our region and it is in the interest of all South Asian countries to come together to fight this cross-border problem.
Bangladesh should strengthen its resolve as well as its technological capability to track and rescue trafficked children. Improved management systems, such as the “uniformed case management” system proposed at a workshop recently, may increase the efficiency in matter of finding, rescuing, and repatriating child victims of trafficking.
It is a matter of great shame that Bangladesh is not up to the internationally desired standard for eliminating human trafficking. The government must urgently take action in this regard, and start prosecuting culpable parties.
Government officials and law enforcement personnel must be given comprehensive training on how to spot and deal with traffickers. Our legal establishment has a duty to enforce anti-trafficking laws. We need to see it act against any corrupt elements in law enforcement which have been complicit in child trafficking, so that they can be brought to book and future abuses are prevented.