The number of cases filed for human trafficking is on the rise but the rate of conviction is still poor.
There is hardly any instance of exemplary punishment for human trafficking although the number cases filed for trafficking are on the rise as the traffickers are influential who can avoid punishment, said victims and anti-trafficking campaigners.
The victims are deprived of justice due to indifference of government officials and loopholes in the relevant laws, they told New Age on Friday.
According to BBC news, a former Thai general has been sentenced to 27 years in jail for human trafficking in a landmark trial.
The former Thai general, Manas Kongpan, was among more than 60 people convicted in Bangkok of trafficking Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims, a minority group fleeing Myanmar.
Trafficking victim Emdadul Hossain from Khamra Khai village under Nabiganj upazila in Habiganj returned home from Thailand in 2016 after languishing in jail.
His elder brother Delwar Hossain said that a local broker, Mohan, sent his brother to Thailand taking Tk 2.20 lakh promising a good job.
When they went to file a case, Nabiganj police station officer-in-charge declined to record the case, he alleged.
Later, with the help of local leaders, they could recover from the broker Tk 1 lakh, he said.
Delwar said that they were denied justice as they could not file the case.
‘Rather the OC threatened me saying that it was not the case of trafficking,’ said Delwar.
According to Police Headquarters’ Human Trafficking Cell, 320 human trafficking
cases were recorded and 729 people were arrested between January and May in 2017 but there were no conviction.
In 2016, police recorded 677 cases and arrested 1,361 people but only three people were convicted of trafficking, said the record.
In 2015, 1,028 human trafficking cases were recorded and 1,540 people were arrested in the cases while four were convicted of the crime.
In 2014, 682 cases were recorded and 807 people were arrested but only 13 were convicted.
Anti-trafficking campaigner Binoy Krishna Mallick, also Rights Jessore executive director, said that the traffickers were local influential people and they remained out the punishment.
Most of the brokers tortured the victims, he said, adding that there were many trafficking victims returned from Iraq, Thailand and Malaysia but they were denied justice.
‘There is no proper enforcement of anti-trafficking law in the country,’ he observed.
Non-governmental organisation SHISHUK executive director Shakiul Millat Morshed said that they dealt with the survivors of trafficking to Iraq, Africa and other countries for several years but there was no instance that the perpetrators got exemplary punishment.
‘In some cases, the survivors get compensations after filing cases,’ he said.
The traffickers are very influential to delay the case procedure and the victims do not get justice, he said.
Although the trafficking cases are supposed to be disposed of in 180 days, the cases continue for over two years, he said.
Absence of rules under the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act 2012 and overlap between the 2012 act and the Overseas Employment and Migrants Act 20113 crease problems in identifying trafficking victims and undocumented workers, he observed.
National programme coordinator at Bhalobashi Bangladesh, a social platform of anti-trafficking campaigns, Al Amin Noyon said that there was no justice of human trafficking cases in Bangladesh although Thailand made example by trying a former general.
Bangladesh authorities were supposed to rehabilitate the trafficking victims but there was no visible initiative in this regard, he said.
According to BBC news, former Thai general Manas Kongpan was sentenced to 27 years in jail for human trafficking on July 19.
Manas was among more than 60 people convicted in Bangkok of trafficking Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims, a minority group fleeing violence in their homeland Myanmar.
Another top former official was sentenced to 75 years in prison.
Muslim Rohingyas have been fleeing Myanmar for years, paying people smugglers to help them escape.
The arrest of the general in June 2015 was seen as part of an effort by Thailand to close down a human smuggling route through the country.
The judge found Manas Kongpan guilty of human trafficking and organised transnational crime.
A former head of administration in the southern province of Satun, Ko-Tong (also known as Patjuban Aungkachotephan), received a sentence of 75 years in prison.
Several other defendants were handed jail terms of similar length. Sentences ranged from four to 94 years.
Report: The New Age
