The government has ordered law enforcement agencies to immediately arrest around 350 listed human traffickers, operating mainly in Cox’s Bazar district, with the help of locally-influential persons.
The traffickers are active mainly at 60 points along the coastal areas of Patuakhali, Barguna, Satkhira, Jhalakathi, Khulna, Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar.
“The Home Ministry has already instructed the law enforcers to monitor the cases filed against human traffickers with different police stations,” CMP Additional Commissioner (crime and operation) Banaz Kumar Majumder, who heads a four-member Anti-Human-Trafficking Special Committee, said.
On December 31, the committee submitted eight-point recommendations to the authorities concerned, reports our Chittagong bureau reporter Tarek Mahmud. But the government is yet to give its decision on the report.
“The government will give specific orders after the ministries complete analysing the special committee report,” Banaz said.
The committee had identified 11 international and 230 Bangladeshi human traffickers including 26 domestic money launderers engaged in the trafficking business. Of them, five criminals were killed recently in gunfights with law enforcers while a dozen other suspected traffickers were arrested in Cox’s Bazar.
“The government has already identified some human traffickers in the border areas and arrested some of them,” State Minister for Home Affairs Minister Assaduzzaman Khan told Dhaka Tribune’s Sohel Mamun on Thursday.
The government has also given emphasis on social campaign programmes to curb human trafficking, he added.
“The government is in close touch with authorities in Myanmar and Thailand to check human trafficking,” Asaduzzaman said, adding that the rescued Bangladeshis would be brought back soon.
Apart from law enforcement agencies including BGB, Coast Guard, RAB and police, the deputy commissioners of the coastal districts have now geared up efforts to nab the traffickers.
Home Ministry officials recently said the government had finalised a new national action plan for 2015-17 to stop human trafficking. It is likely to be announced publicly within two weeks.
Key suggestions unimplemented
According to the special committee report, a total of 3,793 people were rescued from Cox’s Bazar and Chittagong districts in the last five years, and 276 cases were lodged with police stations in which 1,589 persons were prosecuted.
The report also mentioned that traffickers’ agents were found roaming in 41 districts. It said around 15,000-20,000 people were trafficked to Thailand and Malaysia during the last 10 years.
The committee formed under the Police Headquarters in its recommendations had asked the government to set up water police units and investigation centres, and forming anti-trafficking bodies comprising public representatives, civil society members, NGO officials and law enforcers in the coastal areas.
Patuakhali sadar upazila Chairman Md Tariqujjaman Moni said he had not received any letter to form such a committee.
Anwar Hossain Chowdhury, chairman of Jaliapalang union under Ukhiya, claimed the local committee was holding meetings regularly.
However, Ukhiya upazila Vice-Chairman Sultan Mahmud Chowdhury, who was suspended from his post after being sued in a political case, alleged the committee’s activities were only limited to holding meetings.
Meanwhile, the Cox’s Bazar police have not formed water police units as recommended by the special committee. It had asked for water police units for the 60km maritime border in Teknaf and 20km in Ukhiya upazila.
It was also recommended that by introducing investigation centres, more law enforcers would be deployed in Shah Porir Island of Cox’s Bazar, which has been identified as a key den of the traffickers.
Cox’s Bazar Superintendent of Police Shyamal Kumar Nath claimed the incidents of human trafficking were lower than at any other times.
He mentioned that the Police Headquarters’ recommendations could not be implemented overnight as the government higher-ups were still working on it.
The Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) has expressed deep concerns regarding the latest discovery of mass graves and captivity of Bangladeshi expatriates in Thailand.
In a press release signed by its Chair Dr Tasneem Siddiqui, the organisation alleged that ignoring a recent High Court directive against human trafficking – based on an RMMRU petition – had allowed an increase of such incidents.
A High Court bench on March 5 ordered the authorities concerned, including the ministries of home, foreign, labour and expatriate welfare, to stop human trafficking in the name of sending workers abroad, but the authorities took no action, the statement said.
