Urge to prosecute the crimes of human trafficking

fOn August 9th, over 40 public prosecutors and lawyers from ten districts of Bangladesh met with key decisions makers from the Ministry of Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs in a daylong national convention held at the BRAC Inn Center in Dhaka. Drawing on their knowledge, these public prosecutors and lawyers shared and analysed experiences about existing practices of survivor friendly investigation and prosecution. Also they identified gaps in the prosecution process and proposed recommendations to overcome them.

The convention was hosted by USAID's Actions to Combat Trafficking-in-Persons (ACT) program, which is implemented by Winrock International. Since 2009, the ACT program has trained over 194 Public Prosecutors, 101 lawyers and 359 Police Officers from 32 districts across Bangladesh. The public prosecutors attended these training with the permission of Law Ministry through the Office of the Solicitor.

All the participants met in working groups to discuss good practices and challenges of trafficking case filing, investigation and prosecutions based on the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act (PSHTA) of 2012. 

The key recommendations that came out of the working groups are:

*     Investigation report has to be submitted within stipulated time as per the PSHTA 2012

*     Create awareness about ensuring security and protection of victim and witness

*     The Public Prosecutors should be mandatorily consulted before submission of investigation report.

*     Increase women staff in law enforcement and judiciary departments to facilitate victim friendly prosecution

*     Establish shelter homes with minimum standard services in each District

* ·    Create friendly environment in court to ensure respectful behavior during prosecution of cases in judicial court

* ·    Sign bi-lateral agreements with different countries to establish cross border cooperation for repatriation of victims

*     Take initiative to provide compensation as soon as possible when verdict is in favor of the victim

These and other recommendations generated at the convention will be considered for inclusion in the next generation of the National Plan of Action for Combating Trafficking 2015-2017 and reported to all relevant ministries.

Refer to the human trafficking database of Police Monitoring Cell, 377 human trafficking cases have been filed and 1,343 person were victims. Among them 1,125 have been rescued. The January-July 2014 record says 287 human trafficking cases have been filed and 1,262 person were victims. Among them 1,141 have been rescued. Under the 287 cases 388 person have been arrested but only 7 were convicted. Due to delay in prosecution of human trafficking cases the traffickers are remaining out of reach and they are becoming more desperate in conducting this henious crime. Without proper implementation of the law it is not possible to reduce human trafficking from and within Bangladesh. The lack of awareness of the new human trafficking law is also creating a lot of problem in dealing with human trafficking cases in this country. Coordination and synergy among Public Prosecutors, lawyers and police are key to ensuring a robust system for prosecution of human trafficking cases in Bangladesh.

Source: Winrock International.