Transnational human trafficking syndicates are now targeting women in city slums and selling them to brothels in India after promising them lucrative jobs.

Some of the girls trafficked to India and forced into prostitution by a transnational racket are still stranded in the neighbouring country, while a few, including a minor, are yet to be traced.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) Bangladesh yesterday called for a joint effort to battle the heinous crime in trafficking in persons so that it can be eradicated from Bangladesh and beyond.

The horrifying tales of Bangladeshi women being trafficked, more often than not, take place in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

As many as 62,583 Bangladeshis entered Europe irregularly using nine different routes in over a decade since 2009, Brac Migration Programme has revealed. 

The Supreme Court yesterday stayed for six weeks a High Court order that granted bail to Md Azam Khan, an alleged ringleader of a human trafficking gang, in a case filed for human trafficking to abroad.

Bangladesh UN Network on Migration has launched an eight-day social media campaign from Saturday to promote activities against and increase awareness on human trafficking through online platforms, marking the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons 2021.

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) arrested a suspected member of an international organ smuggling racket in the Benapole check-post area on Thursday.

Five Bangladeshi migrants were rescued after a boat sank in the Caribbean Sea near Puerto Escondido of Colombia.

Once a victim of human trafficking, Nodi Akter became a trafficker herself and worked as a coordinator between traffickers in India, Malaysia and UAE.

A few months after she was trafficked to India and forced into sex work, 18-year-old Sania, not her real name, found out that she was pregnant.

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) arrested two suspected human traffickers conducting separate raids in Mymensingh early yesterday.

Two years ago, when she was 18, Tania (not her real name) married Jahidul Islam Rony, 27, a conductor of a city bus. Their days were passing well until she discovered that her husband was a drug addict and irregular in his job.

Two more people were held in Satkhira’s bordering area yesterday over trafficking a young girl who returned home from India last month after escaping captivity of 77 days.

Many cannot even imagine the brutalities an 18-year-old girl endured for more than two months.

After being held captive by a sex trafficking gang in India’s Bengaluru for 77 days, three victims who managed to flee and return home told police of their ordeal and informed that many others are still being held by the racket.

A transnational human trafficking racket, involving some Bangladeshis, has trafficked at least 500 young women and girls to India over the last five years and forced them into sex trade, said Rapid Action Battalion.

Police in Bangladesh are looking for the suspected members of an international gang which has been trafficking young women to India and and forcing them to become sex workers.

Another 36 Bangladeshi migrants were rescued off the Tunisian coast on Thursday, after a boat carrying them capsized in the Mediterranean, reaching the tally of rescued Bangladeshis from the incident to 68.

More than 50 people were missing yesterday when their boat sank after leaving Libya heading to Europe, Tunisia’s defence ministry said, with 33 others rescued.