Human trafficking, as a component of illegal immigration, is a great threat to human security. Due to the lack of legislation which would necessitate the identification of the people being trafficked, the problem has worsened.
The recent incident in the Mediterranean Sea has been the worst case of human trafficking in recent years, shaking the world’s conscience, with the death toll reaching 800. The ship was carrying even more migrants, migrants who wished to enter Europe for a better life. The BBC has reported that 28 alive and 24 dead bodies have been found so far. This is the largest migrant-related tragedy in the Mediterranean, with over 1,800 having disappeared in 2015 alone.
An incident closer to home is the identification of more than 30 mass graves in the Sadao district of Songkhla provice in Thailand. The area is adjacent to Thailand’s border with Malaysia. It is believed that the graves belong to migrants -- who were victims of human trafficking -- from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
The number of dead bodies found in the graveyard was 32 initially, but has been estimated to rise further. It is assumed that these bodies are the result of journeys on sea where they were either shot to death or starved by human traffickers.
These dead bodies, belonging to job-seekers hoping for a better life and wanting to change their fortunes, were being taken via Thailand to Malaysia. The UNHCR reports that over 200 people, in the last year alone, may have died through this route.
Every year, many working class labourers such as mechanics, painters, small businessmen, and the self-employed become targets of local brokers who dupe them with offers of better salaries and better lives abroad.
According to migration experts, push (poor economic activity and lack of job opportunities) and pull (the opposite) factors attract poorer citizens to embark on this hazardous journey. Brokers also abduct children and poor people from coastal areas and send them to foreign traffickers who wait in the offshore islands of the Bay of Bengal, with each being sold for less than Tk20,000.
After being handed over to the smugglers, the victims are tied up, beaten, and tortured inhumanely. Subsequently, the victims are kept as hostages in the jungle with little food and water, and held for ransom.
The mass graveyards indicate the fate befallen to the people whose families failed to pay the ransom. The Wall Street Journal reports that others are sold to the fishing industry as slave labour or forced to work in the jungle camps.
From Myanmar, the Rohingyas -- who are not recognised as Burmese citizens and are treated as stateless -- try to go to other countries since there aren’t enough job facilities at home.
Human trafficking through this route plays host to a variety of human maladies: The hindering of legal migration, using the sea route for illegal arms and drugs like Yaba, gearing up trans-national smuggling groups which result in a number of casualties, making countrymen slaves and the women prostitutes, and the overall insecurity of the route for trans-national trade and fishing trawlers.
To mitigate the challenges, the following three levels of measures can be taken as soon as possible. Nationally, Bangladesh needs to implement the Overseas Employment and Migrants Act 2013 as per Chapter VIII, which defines human trafficking as offences and enforces penalties for the brokers and agents with 10 years of prison as well as a Tk500,000 fine.
The government should also take the necessary measures against human traffickers by working with the NGOs who have been dealing with this issue for a long time, such as the IOM-Dhaka and RMMRU.
The places where human trafficking takes place must be taken over by the police with increased security at night. A regionally-joint forum can be formed by the human trafficking-prone nations such as Bangladesh, Myanamar, Thailand, and Malaysia, which would tighten national and international laws to discourage traffickers.
Globally, this problem can be solved through engaging influential actors such as the UNHCR, the US, and the EU. Already, the US government has downgraded Thailand for recent events as per the Trafficking in Persons Report and the EU has warned of imposing trade sanctions.
