Torture in [Bangladesh] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Bangladesh Street Children in [Bangladesh] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Bangladesh] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early years
of the 21st Century gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Bangladesh.htm
Bangladesh is a source and
transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of
forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. 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 labor or debt bondage. Children – both boys and girls – are
trafficked within Bangladesh for commercial sexual exploitation, bonded
labor, and forced labor. Some children are sold into bondage by their parents,
while others are induced into labor or commercial sexual exploitation through
fraud and physical coercion. Women and children from Bangladesh are also
trafficked to India and Pakistan for sexual exploitation. - |
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CAUTION:
The following links have been culled from the web to
illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Human Trafficking Becomes Attractive Nation.ittefaq.com, 11 February 2005 –
Source: nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/printer_16178.shtml Click [here]
to connect to the article. Its URL is
not displayed because of its length [accessed 21 January 2011] They said tens of thousands
of women and children are trafficked out each year from Inside the slave trade Johann Hari, The Independent, 15 March 2008 www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/inside-the-slave-trade-795307.html [accessed 21 January 2011] They are promised a
better life. But every year, countless boys and girls in Bangladesh are
spirited away to brothels where they have to prostitute themselves with no
hope of freedom. This is the story of
the 21st century’s trade in slave-children. My journey into their underworld
took place where its alleys and brothels are most dense - Asia, where the
United Nations calculates 1 million children are being traded every day. It
took me to places I did not think existed, today, now. To a dungeon in the
lawless Bangladeshi borderlands where children are padlocked and
prison-barred in transit to Indian brothels; to an iron whore-house where
grown women have spent their entire lives being raped; to a clinic that treat
syphilitic 11-year-olds. She comes into the
room swaddled in a red sari, carrying big premature black bags under her
eyes. She tells her story in a slow, halting mumble. Sufia grew up in a
village near Khulna in the south-west of Bangladesh. Her parents were
farmers; she was one of eight children. “My parents couldn’t afford to look
after me,” she says. “We didn’t have enough money for food.” And so came the lie. When Sufia was 14, a
female neighbour came to her parents and said she could find her a good job
in Calcutta as a housemaid. She would live well; she would learn English; she
would have a well-fed future. “I was so excited,” Sufia says. “But as soon as we arrived in Calcutta I
knew something was wrong,” she says. “I didn’t know what a brothel was, but I
could see the house she took me to was a bad house, where the women wore
small clothes and lots of bad men were coming in and out.” The neighbour was
handed 50,000 takka – around £500 – for Sufia, and then she told her to do
what she was told and disappeared. - htcp Choosing Death by Fire Over Marriage -
Forced Marriages Are Driving Some Women to Self-Immolation Leela Jacinto, ABC News, Dec. 11 abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=79767&page=1 [accessed 21 January 2011] 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. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/bangladesh.htm [accessed 21 January 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children are trafficked internally, externally, and
through Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S.
Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61705.htm [accessed
21 January 2011] 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) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
30 September 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/bangladesh2003.html [accessed 21 January 2011] [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. Exploitation of Bangladeshis in Porimol
Palma, The Daily Star, April 11, 2009 www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=83694 [accessed
21 January 2011] The exploitative
practices centring Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia constitute nothing other
than human trafficking; the governments of Bangladesh and Malaysia have not
been able to protect the workers' rights, said Irene Fernandez, a veteran
migrants' rights activist of Malaysia. When they brought
workers in surplus numbers to Malaysia, they were only interested in making
fast cash. The outsourcing companies told Bangladeshi job brokers 'you pay me
500 ringgit per worker and find jobs for them and do whatever'. So,
Bangladeshi job brokers then bought the workers from the outsourcing
companies, and literally made them slaves. The brokers then told the workers
'you go and work, I will give you food and lodging'. And the workers were put
to work for two, three, or four months. So, the contract that had been signed
between the workers and recruiting agencies in Bangladesh, which was attested
by the Bangladesh government, had no meaning any more. The question is
now, why no action is being taken against the Malaysian outsourcing companies
for the fact that they violated the contracts. Again, the governments of both
countries have not been able to enforce the rules. Malaysia has to make its
companies accountable, and Bangladesh has to make its recruiting agencies
accountable. Because the passports of the workers are being held and the
workers who don't have any job are being locked up by the job brokers or the
outsourcing companies, it constitutes nothing but human trafficking. And,
with the global economic recession, the situation is going to worsen, because
many of the companies, particularly in the manufacturing sector, are
collapsing. Bangla aiding NE human trafficking Guwahati, March 27, 2009 www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=mar2809/at09 [accessed 21 January 2011] The Director
General of Assam Police GM Srivastava today stated that neighbouring
countries, especially Attributing the
rise of human trafficking cases in the region to poverty and the simplicity
of the people here, the Assam Police chief stressed on the need for an
attitudinal change amongst the people to wipe out the menace from the
society. Govt cancels licences of 32 agencies The
Daily Star, 2008-05-26 www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=38262 [accessed 18 April 2012] The government has
cancelled the licenses of 32 travel and recruiting agencies in the last two
months for irregularities in manpower business and involvement in human
trafficking. The licenses were
cancelled after law-enforcing agencies in an investigation found the agencies
illegally sending manpower abroad, which in most cases led to trafficking of
women and children, meeting sources said.
Police and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) are at present investigating
the activities of some other agencies and their licenses could also be
revoked on the same grounds, the meeting was told. 3,000 Bangladeshis in www.traffickingproject.org/2008/04/bangladeshi-victims-of-trafficking-in.html [accessed 18 April 2012] According to a
reliable Bangladeshi source who asked to remain anonymous, “the
"brokers" take US $4,000 for each Bangladeshi worker and give them
hope of good jobs and salaries,” he said. “However, they mostly find
themselves working as cleaners at restaurants and companies or construction
workers.” The source said that there
are currently at least 3,000 illegal Bangladeshi workers in Yemen who end up
taking menial jobs because they have no other choice. They receive between US
$100-130 per month, or approximately three dollars per day. Inside the slave trade Johann Hari, The Independent, 15 March 2008 www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/inside-the-slave-trade-795307.html [accessed 21 January 2011] They are promised a
better life. But every year, countless boys and girls in Bangladesh are
spirited away to brothels where they have to prostitute themselves with no
hope of freedom. This is the story of
the 21st century’s trade in slave-children. My journey into their underworld
took place where its alleys and brothels are most dense - Asia, where the
United Nations calculates 1 million children are being traded every day. It
took me to places I did not think existed, today, now. To a dungeon in the
lawless Bangladeshi borderlands where children are padlocked and
prison-barred in transit to Indian brothels; to an iron whore-house where
grown women have spent their entire lives being raped; to a clinic that treat
syphilitic 11-year-olds. She comes into the
room swaddled in a red sari, carrying big premature black bags under her
eyes. She tells her story in a slow, halting mumble. Sufia grew up in a
village near Khulna in the south-west of Bangladesh. Her parents were
farmers; she was one of eight children. “My parents couldn’t afford to look
after me,” she says. “We didn’t have enough money for food.” And so came the lie. When Sufia was 14, a
female neighbour came to her parents and said she could find her a good job
in Calcutta as a housemaid. She would live well; she would learn English; she
would have a well-fed future. “I was so excited,” Sufia says. “But as soon as we arrived in Calcutta I
knew something was wrong,” she says. “I didn’t know what a brothel was, but I
could see the house she took me to was a bad house, where the women wore
small clothes and lots of bad men were coming in and out.” The neighbour was
handed 50,000 takka – around £500 – for Sufia, and then she told her to do
what she was told and disappeared. - htcp Combating Trafficking for Forced Labor
Purposes in the OSCE Region Click [here]
to connect to the article. Its URL is
not displayed because of its length [accessed 21 January 2011] For example, a
contract labor agency in Human trafficking on rise across bordering
districts RU Correspondent, The Daily Star, October
16, 2006 At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4 September 2011] 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 The New Nation, 23 Jul 2006 n-cat.blogspot.com/2006/07/human-trafficking-21-points-in-border.html [accessed 21 January 2011] 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 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. Deutsche Presse-Agentur (German Press
Agency) DPA, At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4 September 2011] 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 But they are mostly
forced into prostitution as they illegally enter India, said Adhikar, a local
non-government charity for children from poor families. Maria Mackay, Christian Today, September 8,
2005 www.christiantoday.com/article/church.mission.society.drive.against.sex.trade.in.bangladesh/3895.htm [accessed 21 January 2011] 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] Source: -- Retrieved from
www.goacom.org/news/getStory.php?ID=1732 on September 8, 2006 www.unescobkk.org/fileadmin/user_upload/arsh/Country_Profiles/Bangladesh/Chapter_3.pdf [accessed 21 January 2011] [page 12] A prostitution racket with links in David Gollust, Voice of At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 4 September 2011] He said several
countries listed in the bottom category last year, including Human Trafficking Becomes Attractive Nation.ittefaq.com, 11 February 2005 –
Source: nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/printer_16178.shtml Click [here]
to connect to the article. Its URL is
not displayed because of its length [accessed 21 January 2011] They said tens of thousands
of women and children are trafficked out each year from Child camel jockeys find hope Lucy Williamson, BBC News, newswww.bbc.net.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4236123.stm [accessed 21 January 2011] 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: 4 Civil Liberties: 4 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/bangladesh [accessed 26 June 2012] Human Rights
Overview Human
Rights Watch [accessed 21 January 2011] Library of Congress Call Number DS393.4
.B372 1989 lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/bdtoc.html [accessed 21 January 2011] Four Nations Move Against Trafficking in
Response to Bureau of International Information
Programs, www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2004/September/20040910174056cmretrop0.6162226.html [accessed
21 January 2011] 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 February 9, 2004 – Source:
www.scientology.org/news-media/news/2004/040209.html groups.yahoo.com/group/Shetubondhon/message/7981?l=1 [accessed 21 January 2011] She was a teenage girl
from an impoverished village in NetCent Communications -- Data Source: US
Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs www.ncbuy.com/reference/country/humanrights.html?code=in&sec=6f [accessed 21 January 2011] TRAFFICKING IN
PERSONS
- In Ground-breaking surveys expose plight of
Bangladesh's working children International Labour Organization ILO, www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/bangkok/public/releases/yr2004/pr04_15.htm At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] 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 Keith Skillicorn, 2006 www.webspawner.com/users/liberateslaves/ [accessed 21 January 2011] 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 Staff and consultants of the Asian
Development Bank, April 2003 www.adb.org/Documents/Books/Combating_Trafficking/Regional_Synthesis_Paper.pdf [accessed
21 January 2011] [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 Somini Sengupta, The New York Times, query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E1D61E3EF93AA15757C0A9649C8B63 [accessed
21 January 2011] 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 Leela Jacinto, ABC News, Dec. 11 abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=79767&page=1 [accessed 21 January 2011] 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 - Coalition Against Trafficking in Women,
Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/banglad.htm [accessed 21 January 2011] TRAFFICKING - Police estimate
more than 15,000 women and children are smuggled out of Child Labour Persists Around The World:
More Than 13 Percent Of Children 10-14 Are Employed International Labour Organisation (ILO)
News, www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/press-and-media-centre/news/WCMS_008058/lang--en/index.htm [accessed 9 September 2011] "Today's child
worker will be tomorrow's uneducated and untrained adult, forever trapped in
grinding poverty. No effort should be spared to break that vicious
circle", says ILO Director-General Michel Hansenne. Among the countries
with a high percentage of their children from 10-14 years in the work force
are: Mali, 54.5 percent; Burkina Faso, 51; Niger and Uganda, both 45; Kenya,
41.3; Senegal, 31.4; Bangladesh, 30.1;
Nigeria, 25.8; Haiti, 25; Turkey, 24; Côte d'Ivoire, 20.5; Pakistan, 17.7;
Brazil, 16.1; India, 14.4; China, 11.6; and Egypt, 11.2. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
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Torture in [Bangladesh] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Bangladesh Street Children in [Bangladesh] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Bangladesh] [other countries]