Human Trafficking in [Bangladesh Street Children in [Bangladesh] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Bangladesh] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery People’s Republic of Bangladesh [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The People's Republic of Bangladesh is a source and transit country for men, women, and
children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and commercial sexual
exploitation. Children – both girls and boys – are trafficked internally for
commercial sexual exploitation, bonded labor, and other forms of forced labor.
Estimates from UNICEF and other sources since 2004 suggest that between
10,000 and 29,000 children are exploited in prostitution in Bangladesh. Some
children are sold into bondage by their parents, while others are coerced
into labor or commercial sexual exploitation through fraud and physical
coercion. The Center for Women and Child Studies reports that trafficked boys
are generally under 10 years old and trafficked girls are between 11 and 16
years old. Women and children from Bangladesh are also trafficked to India
and Pakistan for sexual exploitation. Bangladeshi men and women migrate
willingly to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE),
Qatar, Iraq, Lebanon, and Malaysia for work. Women typically work as domestic
servants; some find themselves in situations of forced labor when faced with
restrictions on movement, non-payment of wages, threats, and physical or
sexual abuse. Similarly, Bangladeshi men and women migrate to Malaysia, the
Gulf, Jordan, and Finland to work in the construction sector or garment
industry; they are sometimes induced into forced labor through fraudulent job
offers, or after arrival in the destination country. Illegal fees imposed
formally by Bangladeshi recruitment agents sometimes serve to facilitate debt
bondage situations. Some Bangladeshi women working abroad are subsequently
trafficked into commercial sexual exploitation. Bangladeshi adults are also
trafficked internally for commercial sexual exploitation, domestic servitude,
and bonded labor. Some Burmese women who are trafficked to India transit
through Bangladesh. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2008 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The
following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Human Trafficking Becomes Attractive They said tens of thousands
of women and children are trafficked out each year from ***
ARCHIVES *** U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children are trafficked internally, externally, and through Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – There
was extensive trafficking in both women and children, primarily to According to government sources,
law enforcement personnel recovered 139 victims of trafficking during the
year. A cooperative effort between NGOs, the government, and the UAE,
resulted in the repatriation of 164 camel jockeys, 159 of whom were reunited
with their biological parents. The other five remained in NGO shelters at year's
end, receiving social and vocation skills training while the NGO attempted to
locate their families. BNWLA rescued 314 trafficking victims
from within the country and repatriated 32 others from the UAE and The exact number of women and
children trafficked was unknown. Most trafficked persons were lured by
promises of good jobs or marriage, and some were forced into involuntary servitude
outside of and within the country. Parents sometimes willingly sent their
children away to escape poverty. Unwed mothers, orphans, and others outside
of the normal family support system were also susceptible. Traffickers living
abroad often arrived in a village to marry a woman, only to dispose of her
upon arrival in the destination country, where women were sold into bonded
labor, menial jobs, or prostitution. Criminal gangs conducted some of the
trafficking. The border with Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2003 [73] The Committee is deeply
concerned at the high incidence of trafficking in children for purposes of
prostitution, domestic service and to serve as camel jockeys and at the lack
of long‑term, concentrated efforts on the part of the State party to
combat this phenomenon. Combating
Trafficking for Forced Labor Purposes in the OSCE
Region For example, a contract labor
agency in Bangladesh advertised work at a garment factory in Jordan. The ad
promised a 3-year contract, $425 per month, 8 hour workdays, 6 days a
week, paid overtime, free accommodations, free medical care, free food, and
no advance fees. Instead, upon arrival, workers (who were obliged to pay
exorbitant advance fees) had passports confiscated, were confined to
miserable conditions, and were prevented from leaving the factory. Months
passed without pay, food was inadequate, and sick workers were tortured.
Because most workers had borrowed money at inflated rates to get the
contracts, they were obliged through debt to stay. The sad truth is that we
find workers across the globe holding on to the thin hope that they will
eventually get paid, or that conditions will improve, because if they leave,
there is no hope that they will be able to repay the debt. Human trafficking on rise across bordering districts Speakers at a view-exchange
meeting yesterday said that the incidents of human trafficking are on the
rise across the bordering districts.
The meeting revealed that between June 15, 2004 and September 2006,
488 victims were rescued, 379 traffickers were detained and 444 victims were
handed over to their legal guardian.
The rest of the victims are taking shelter in different shelter homes
in the country. 21 points in border areas vulnerable Human trafficking is the third
most profitable business after drugs and gunrunning in the South Asian region
and twenty-one points in the border have been identified as vulnerable areas
in Bangladesh. Prof Shamim
said that representatives from the SAARC countries
recommended widening of the scope of SAARC
Convention to exceed beyond prostitution to include many types of
exploitations, including forced and indentured labour,
camel jockeys and organ transplantation. Bangladesh
busts human trafficking ring: 34 rescued The women and children, some as
young as five-years-old, were brought by the traffickers from four neighbourhood districts with false promises of lucrative
jobs in India. But they are mostly forced into
prostitution as they illegally enter India, said Adhikar,
a local non-government charity for children from poor families. Church
Mission Society Drive Against Sex Trade in Bangladesh Women particularly at risk are
those living in areas where HIV is still relatively uncommon, with most of
the trafficked women are sold in to Mumbhai,
Rajasthan and Bihar in Bangla prostitution racket busted [PDF] [page 12]
A prostitution racket with links in Bangladesh operating in the state
has been busted by the Goa police. The Crime Branch team laid a trap and
arrested three women who had forced a Bangladeshi girl, Mallika
(real name has been withheld) into prostitution. The women, who procured the 16-year old Mallika from Bangladesh, are believed to have been
operating in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat,
besides Goa.
Mallika, hailing from a poverty stricken
family, was approached by a ‘sympathetic looking’ Bangladeshi woman, who
offered to take the girl to Mumbai with the promise that the family would see
a change in their fortunes. U.S.
Report On Human Trafficking Reveals
Scope Of Modern-Day Slavery He said several countries listed
in the bottom category last year, including Human Trafficking Becomes Attractive They said tens of thousands
of women and children are trafficked out each year from Children from Pakistan, Bangladesh
and Sudan are still being smuggled to the United Arab Emirates to work as
camel jockeys, despite a law passed two years ago banning their use. It is not uncommon for child jockeys to
fall off and be injured while racing, and their illegal status means race
track owners are often reluctant to take them to hospital. Instead, says Ansar
Burney, the boys often arrive with broken hands or broken legs. And many, he
says, have been sodomized. Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 5 Civil Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide U.S. Library of Congress
- Country Study Four Nations Move Against Trafficking in Response to U.S. Report Bangladesh,
Ecuador, Guyana and Sierra Leone have acted rapidly over the last few months
to reduce human trafficking in their borders. In so doing, they have avoided
U.S.-imposed sanctions, according to a White House announcement September 10.
The United States issued a warning
of sorts in June when it released its annual survey of human trafficking
activities worldwide. These four nations were cast in the lowest ranking,
reflecting their inaction in lawmaking and law enforcement to control human
trafficking through their borders. Sexual
Slavery in Southern California Today? She was a teenage girl from an
impoverished village in Bangladesh.
The American couple offered her transport to America and a better life: a
nice job as their nanny and housekeeper, wages and opportunity. The dream
offer dissolved into a nightmare as soon as she reached sunny Southern
California. The couple informed her she owed them a huge sum for bringing her
into the country and forced her to work without wages for years in their
home, where she was repeatedly raped and beaten by the husband and abused by
the wife. After three failed attempts, and with the help of good Samaritans,
she finally escaped. TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS - In West Bengal, the organized
traffic in illegal Bangladeshi immigrants was a principal source of bonded
labor. Calcutta was a convenient transit point for traffickers who send
Bangladeshis to New Delhi, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh, and the Middle East. Ground-breaking
surveys expose plight of Bangladesh's working children The most detailed picture ever
compiled of the conditions endured by Bangladesh’s most disadvantaged
children - those working in what are classified as the worst forms of child labour – has revealed that many are working 10 hours a
day, 6 days a week, sometimes for only food and a bed. Despite these gruelling
hours the vast majority receive little or even no wages. Youngsters
recharging and filling batteries averaged Tk.313 (US$ 5.30) a month while
street children – who earn by collecting old paper, street selling, shining
shoes, portering or begging - averaged just Tk.288 (US$4.85) a
month. Those in the transport sector
did best, averaging Tk.1,417 (US$24) a month.
Yet even these low earnings figures paint a misleading picture of the
children’s welfare. For example, while the average monthly wages of those in
auto workshops is TK. 470 (US$ 8), 40 per cent of
these children said they received no wages, just food and lodging. Help
Us Liberate The World's Slaves During my 31 years of Community
Service in India and Bangladesh, mainly involved in Community Development,
Rural Education, Leprosy Control and the support of Widows and Orphans, I was
stunned by another major problem, thought by many to no longer exist in this
21st. Century - SLAVERY - SLAVERY's MAIN VICTIMS
ARE WOMEN - SPARE THEM A KIND THOUGHT During my 31 years spent in India
and Bangladesh, particularly during two periods of famine, I saw hundreds of
people enslaved as "Bonded Labourers",
most being forced to work in such places as biri
(cigarette) / carpet factories and brick kilns with females also forced into
prostitution (sexual slavery). Combating
Trafficking Of Women And Children In South Asia [PDF] [page 89]
4.5.2 ENFORCEMENT
OF LAWS AGAINST TRAFFICKING - The Government of Bangladesh itself acknowledges serious problems
in the enforcement of laws against trafficking, including the 2000 Act. In
its 1997 report to the CEDAW Committee, the
Government noted that implementation of the laws was weak, in part because
members of law enforcement were often themselves involved in trafficking
activities, and that the laws were sometimes misapplied with the result that
victims were charged with immoral behavior and put in jail. In general, the
Government noted that the judicial system is difficult for women to access,
since court proceedings are lengthy and court officials are often hostile or
unsympathetic to them. The Government acknowledged that law enforcement
authorities and the judiciary need to be better sensitized, and that the
repatriation of Bangladeshi women who have been trafficked to other countries
also needs to be facilitated. Child
Traffickers Prey on Bangladesh Nuru Miah's
hands show the hazards of his vocation: a small scar on the back of his right
palm marks where a camel once sunk its teeth.
Nuru, now around 10, spent two years as a
camel jockey in the Dubai desert. How
his parents were persuaded to send him to the Persian Gulf is unclear, though
promises of a better life, perhaps a little money, are the conventional sales
pitches. What is known is that he was sent from his home, a village south of
here, when he was about 7. Once he arrived in Dubai, his
meals were rationed to make sure he did not gain much weight. He was whipped
when he was disagreeable. Still, he was luckier than many of his peers. Other
little boys with whom he worked, he recalled, tumbled from the camels and
broke their bones. Nuru,
the son of landless peasants, is among an untold number of children who are
taken out of this country each year by traffickers. Some are kidnapped,
others are sold. Choosing
Death by Fire Over Marriage - Forced Marriages Are Driving Some Women to
Self-Immolation The abduction came as a complete
surprise to Miah, a London-based community youth
activist who had been dating Shipa for several
years. Shipa's
family had earlier accepted a marriage proposal put forth in the
"correct way" by Miah's family, and the
young Briton was unaware that her parents had no intention of actually
allowing their daughter to marry a man of her choice. On the morning of Oct. 12, 1995, Shipa was whisked to a cousin's place near Heathrow
Airport, then flown to Bangladesh. She was not informed about her family's
plans for her future until just a few hours before boarding the plane. Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation - Bangladesh TRAFFICKING - Police estimate more than
15,000 women and children are smuggled out of Bangladesh every year. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [Bangladesh Street Children in [Bangladesh] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Bangladesh] [other countries]