Modern day slavery
Khamin sheds light on the business of human-trafficking along with the misfortunes of the victims of this modern day form of slavery and evaluates the strength of the state mechanisms in place to tackle the issue
It was with an aim to secure a job, and in the process,
photo by Al-Emrun Garjon
her family's solvency, that Jakia Dewan arrived at her cousin Salauddin's residence in Mirpur 11 earlier this year. Hailing from the Dewan Kandi village in the Shariatpur district, she is the oldest of five siblings in her family. In an attempt to support the family, her father has been working in the Middle East over the past couple of years.
As fate would have it, her path crossed with that of Priya, a native of the same village as Jakia's. Soon, Priya managed to persuade her to migrate to India in search of a job with a lucrative pay. Alas, having accepted the proposition, Jakia fell for the bait devised by the notorious human trafficker Priya, also known as Shathi, who had been in the business of trafficking women since 2008.
Fortunately, Jakia was recently rescued from the Budhwar Peth red-light area at Pune in India, by the Pune police, a month after being trafficked into India. She was sent to the Liluah Home rehabilitation centre in Kolkata and was subsequently sent to Bangladesh on May 18 of this year. Although she had been united with her family in Dewan Kandi on May 23, Jakia will doubtless carry mental and emotional scars for the rest of her life.
Many women and children are illegally trafficked into and out of Bangladesh on a monthly basis under the lure of lucrative pay-days and livelihood in foreign countries. Once they reach the destinations, most of these seemingly innocent victims are sold off to prostitution and criminal rings, who torture these otherwise unwilling beings to submit to their ill-fates.
Even when most of the fortunate ones find their way back to Bangladesh, it is extremely tough for the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the government authorities to reintegrate them into their communities, as most of their families wish to sever all ties with them.
Like Jakia, Fatema Akhter from Mymenshingh, Ruma Gani from Bhola, Rehana from Comilla, Sonia Mustafa from Fatikchhari and Dipali from Barisal, were rescued from Budhwar Peth, a famous red-light district, housing a sizeable proportion of sex workers.
The victims later went onto describe horrific tales about how, after being smuggled into India, they were locked up for days without food. All of them were beaten, their private parts burnt by cigarettes and gang raped, until they succumbed to the wishes of their captors and ended up serving, at least, 25 clients each day.
Jakia along with other rescued Bangladeshis, used to work under Urmila and Saraswati in Budhwar Peth. The women were sent back by the Indian police through the help of Rescue Foundation Home at Mumbai in Maharashtra, India. The trafficker Priya from Mirpur in Bangladesh, maintains connection with many buyers like Urmila and Saraswati in India, Yemen, Dubai and other parts of the world.
Apart from these women, some Bangladeshi women were also rescued from Kolkata. Sabina Akhter is among them, having been ferried to a Kolkata brothel by the traffickers. After being rescued by the Shialdah police in Kolkata, she was sent to the All Bengal Rehabilitation Centre. Sabina was sent back to her family at Satkhira on January 31 this year.
Similarly, the teenage girls, Meem and Boby, were rescued from the Marwari Mandir brothel in Jessore by the Jessore police this year. The two friends were channelled to the brothel in Jessore with the hopes of better jobs abroad by Priya from Mirpur. However, once at the brothel, Meem realised what she was faced with and managed to escape.
'I contacted the police and asked them to help my friend Boby. The police got Boby out of the brothel,' she tells Xtra.
Upon speaking to some of the victims identified above, it is evident that Priya operates a substation at Jatrabari, where she transports women and children to her aunt, Kahinoor Begum's residence, to spend the night before their journey.
'I spent the night before the voyage to India there. Khala (Kahinoor Begum) introduced me to Murshed (Priya's brother) who took us to the Jessore border,' Shilphi Akhter.
Most of the members operating the trafficking rings, prey on unemployed women as well as children, offering tempting travel packages to cover their intentions, similar to what Sabina Akhter was offered.
They purportedly target women of attractive disposition, coming from low-income backgrounds, particularly in areas like Mirpur, Asulia and Savar with a large concentration of garment-factories.
Other areas that have proved fruitful for them are the Bihari camp in Mohammadpur, the Millat Bihari camp in Mirpur, Telugu camp in Agargaon and Horizon camp in old Dhaka. Even the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar has been identified as a core area for the recruitment of women.
Upon enticing a potential client, these traffickers generally arrange for a safe passage across the border to India by contacting other members of the wing deployed in Jessore.
'When Priya Apa (Sister) told me about the job opportunities in India, the first thing I asked her was if it would be possible to manage the expenses of travel with the little amount of money I had, to which she provided assurances,' says Akhi Akther, a resident of the Millat Bihari Camp in Mirpur 11, who was set to be trafficked to Marwari Mandir by Priya. Akhi Akther was rescued by the Jessore police and sent back to her family on April 27 this year.
According to the accounts provided by some of the victims, Priya's ring used two locationssituated in Bhomra and Kalaroa, near the border in Jessore, to shelter the women and children before their voyage.
During this time, the victims, through laced drinks, claim to have been sedated till their handover to the Indian agent was completed.
'I cannot recall much of what went on at the time but I was able to move and follow instructions although I could barely speak,' recounts Jakia.
To safely cross the India-Bangladesh border, accomplices named Shohel, Raju and Jahangir would aid the traffickers. They would ensure that the victims were given a safe passage without the hassles of paperwork or threats of police checks.
Even after Jakia's subsequent handover to the Indian agent, she was not aware of the true extent of the situation, which she finally was able to gauge, once she reached Pune, from the demeanours of the host of 12 to 16 year old sex workers she was in the company of.
'I was always looking for a decent job at home but was happy to find work in India. Unfortunately, I placed my complete trust in Priya insofar as never even having asked her as to the job description and consequently, I found myself thrown into a brothel,' says Jakia.
According to sources in anti-trafficking organisations in Bangladesh, the operations of trafficking rings are conducted in three tiers; the first one for the recruitment of women by luring them with the prospect of lucrative job offers, the second tier to steer them across the border and the third to handover the victims to parties on the other side.
'Every tier receives four to ten thousand takas for each woman with the total transaction reaching figures in the region of forty to forty five thousand takas,' says Dipti Baul, Job Placement Officer of Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers' Association (BNWLA), who is working under the Anti-Trafficking Project of the association.
According to BNWLA, there have been more than 20 women, who fell victim to the lures of traffickers, much in the same vein as Jakia throughout the year. Fortunately, most of these women, who were sold off to prostitution rings, were eventually rescued by Indian and Bangladeshi law enforcement teams.
There are, however, others who engineer their own escape, like Shilpi Akhter, having returned to her home in Millat Bihari Camp, Mirpur 11 by fleeing from Budhwar Peth. She fell victim to trafficking earlier in the year but her return has only been greeted by waves of neglect and abuse hurled at her family.
As such, recovering from the scars inflicted upon these girls in the brothels where they are subjected to mental and physical torture, naturally requires tremendous courage and will.
'We had to move residence as a result of our neighbours' inhumane attitude towards us,' says Salma Akhter, mother of Shilpi.
Similar tales of social stigma have been related by other victims as many cite the lack of proper social rehabilitation schemes by the government at large, as the reason behind their failure to reintegrate into society.
Human trafficking is a global phenomenon. Bahrain, Lebanon, Pakistan and India are just a few of the markets for women and children trafficked from Bangladesh. 'Bangladesh is also used as a transit point for trafficking with Indian agents working as mediators,' says Advocate Salma Ali, Executive Director of BNWLA.
'It is not confined to just one country but human trafficking is a global phenomenon and happens in almost all countries in the world,' explains Emma Newbury of the international anti-human trafficking group, Stop Trafficking.
'Bangladesh is considered a source of modern slaves and also a destination point for slaves who are brought in from other countries. I speak from the point of view of someone who believes that when citizens are aware of the problem, they can assert influence on their government and law enforcement agencies to take this problem seriously,' says Nola Theiss, Executive Director of US based Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships, Inc
'Victims are recruited by any means possible: family members may sell relatives, small businesses may recruit or transport victims, international rings are involved in large scale trafficking and gangs are often involved.
'There are many very effective Bangladeshi organisations fighting this crime in Bangladesh, but everyone must be involved at all levels of society,' she adds.
However, a report published by the US State Department, Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP), June 2010, shows contrasting accounts of the scenario, leading the Bangladesh government and Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, minister of labour and employment, to refute certain aspects of the report.
The TIP says that, Bangladesh is a source and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, especifically forced labour and forced prostitution. A significant share of Bangladesh's trafficking victims are men recruited for work overseas with fraudulent employment offers who are subsequently exploited under conditions of forced labour or debt bondage.
The report also states that children are trafficked within Bangladesh for commercial sexual exploitation, bonded labour, and forced labour. Some children are sold into bondage by their parents, while others are induced into labour or commercial sexual exploitation through fraud and physical coercion. Women and children from Bangladesh are also trafficked to India for commercial sexual exploitation.
'Bangladesh is in watch tier 2 in the report. It is true that, the report is not fully reflecting the overall scenario of trafficking in Bangladesh. India is the main market in the subcontinent, but there is no statement for India like Bangladesh in the report,' says Ehsanur Rahman, executive director of Dhaka Ahsania Mission and also a member of the anti-trafficking taskforce cell of the Bangladesh government.
During the current year, around 54 rescued victims were brought in for rehabilitation treatment at the Ahsania Mission, informs Rahman.
Since the publishing of the TIP report, the government has been working on anti- trafficking measures, though there is no base line data about the victims. However, different experts from anti-trafficking organisations believe that trafficking is being reduced due to increasing public awareness in the urban and rural areas.
'There are no official statistics available for the victims of human trafficking but the practical observation and judgment clarifies that there are thousands of girls trafficked from Nepal, Bangladesh and other parts of India, forced for prostitution,' says Triveni Balkrishna Acharya, the president of Rescue Foundation in Mumbai, India.
'The government has taken the TIP report seriously and are thoroughly studying the report. Already, a comprehensive law against anti-trafficking has been formulated while the government has also passed orders to reactivate the anti-trafficking cell in the thana level,' says Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed, joint secretary, ministry of home affairs, and head of the Counter Trafficking Cell.
'Comparatively, the overall situation of trafficking is less than in the past years due to the imposition of strict legal actions by the government as well as the sound involvement of NGOs to eliminate trafficking,' says Shabnaaz Zahereen, Child Protection Officer of UNICEF Bangladesh.
'If Bangladesh improves its bilateral relations with India and sign a bilateral deed, we think the problems, mainly revolving around the rescuing and repatriation of victims will be solved while trafficking networks will also be broken,' she adds.
'Apart from this, the government must also take the initiative to pass and enact the draft law against trafficking,' says Salma Ali.
'Currently in Bangladesh, there are laws against trafficking. The main law against trafficking is prescribed by The Prevention of Repression against Women and Children Act, 2000, which covers trafficking under sections 5 and 6. It prohibits the trafficking of women and children for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation or involuntary servitude. Under articles 372 and 373 of the penal code, the selling and buying of a child under the age of 18 for prostitution is prohibited. Currently, the law on trafficking does not cover men who are trafficked,' says Emma Newbury.
The Prevention of Repression against Women and Children Act, 2000 (amended in 2003) prohibits the trafficking of women and children for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation or involuntary servitude.
The Act prescribed penalties ranging from 10 years' imprisonment to a death sentence. The most common sentence imposed on convicted sex traffickers is life imprisonment. These penalties are very stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for other serious crimes, such as rape.
Meanwhile, Article 374 of Bangladesh's penal code also prohibits forced labour, but the prescribed penalties of imprisonment for up to one year or a fine are not sufficiently stringent.
'Even the SAARC Convention needs to be reviewed because it does not cover trafficking as a whole but rather just the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation. There are no guidelines for child trafficking and forced labour or bondage,' concludes Shabnaaz.
Confutation in figure
by Khamin
Moreover, the government's anti trafficking cell was also unable to confirm an accurate figure depicting the rate of trafficking per month. However, most of the NGOs are providing statistics based on the estimates produced in 2001, under the Operations Research Project (ORP), a project of the ICDDR,B: Centre for Health and Population Research, which worked in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh Government, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The report titled 'Trafficking of Women and Children in Bangladesh, An Overview' says that about 200,000 women and girls from Bangladesh were trafficked to Pakistan over the 10 years leading to its publication, continuing at the rate of 200-400 women per month.
This year, another study titled 'State of Trafficking in Women and Children and their Sexual Exploitation in Bangladesh' was released with the help of ANESVAD of Spain on July 29, at a press conference in BRAC Centre.
State minister for women and children's affairs, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury released the report, and ANESVAD Foundation Asia's coordinator Olatz Landa, IOM's South Asian representative, Rabab Fatima, BNWLA's executive director Salma Ali, Population Council's country director, Ubaidur Rob and additional inspector general of the police, NBK Tripura were all present at the programme along with CWCS president, Professor Ishrat Shamim.
The study shows that although there is no reliable estimate of the number of women and children who have been trafficked from Bangladesh, it has been estimated that 200 to 400 young women and girls are smuggled every month.
Although USAID Bangladesh in a report stated that numbers on trafficking in Bangladesh are unavailable, estimates on the number of women and children trafficked, range from 10,000 to 20,000 per year.
Even though it was conducted in the year 2001, ICDDR,B's report still forms the basis of the data provided by most NGOs. As such, the veracity of the figures in today's context has been questioned in several quarters. Variations over the last nine years or so are a certainty, even if some NGOs conform to the figures of 200-400 women being trafficked per month, as provided by the report. There have also been allegations that NGOs resort to adhering to these figures in an attempt to gain attention from USAID and procure funds in the process as the organisation has allocated funds, numbering in the millions to tackle human trafficking.
'There is no exact figure denoting the rate of human trafficking due to the absence of any form of base line data in Bangladesh. To my knowledge, the figures were alarming in 1997 but since then, the Bangladesh government has taken various initiatives to address the issue while the media has also played its part in raising awareness on the issue, all of which has contributed to reducing the amount of trafficking,' says Professor Ishrat Shamim, president of the Centre for Women and Children Studies.
Ehsanur Rahman, executive director of Dhaka Ahsania Mission believes that, due to media awareness programmes and the government's imposition of strong legal measures, the number of people engaging in such heinous business is substantially lower than in the past.
Meanwhile, Shabnaaz Zahereen, UNICEF Child Protection Officer, also believes that the figures are on the decline while Dr Kamal Uddin Ahmed Joint Secretary (Political) from Ministry of Home and head of Counter Trafficking Cell reaffirms the doubts over the existence of exact figures.
'In accordance with the police stations from all over the country, we are trying to sum up the figure but what we can confirm is that the figure is rather minute,' he conludes.
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