Incidin Bangladesh launches one-stop centre for human trafficking victims

Saiful Islam, a 27-year-old man from Dhaka's Keraniganj upazila, went to Dubai some three months ago on a visit visa through a recruiting agency called Jannat Overseas.

Even though the agency assured him of a job after reaching the destination, it was never delivered as promised.

Instead, Saiful was confined in a room in Dubai. After several months of constrained stay, he was forced to return home last Saturday empty-handed. 

Like Saiful, thousands of migrating Bangladeshis are being deceived by the middlemen or agencies in destination countries. Such types of undue migration are often considered human trafficking where the assurance of jobs is fake.  

However, many of the victims cannot fight against the well-established middlemen or agencies after they return home.

To help these unfortunate returnees, Incidin Bangladesh has taken an initiative to establish a one-stop digital service centre in Dhaka's Keraniganj under a pilot project.

Under this project, the victims who would report to the centre will be linked through public-private organisations and existing government helplines for legal and social assistance.

A workshop was held on Tuesday at Cirdap auditorium with the participation of the stakeholders on the project titled "One-Stop Digital Service Centre to

Address Trafficking during Covid-19 in Bangladesh" in collaboration with Terre des hommes, a leading Swiss aid organization.

If the initiative succeeds, it may be expanded over the country with government collaboration.

"We paid Tk2.49 lakh to an agency as migration cost. We had to borrow more than Tk 1 lakh against interest. Now, we have no idea how to pay off the money," Anwar Hossain, elder brother of Saiful, told The Business Standard who also participated in the event.

"We are trying to get the money back from the agency through negotiation. If we fail, we need legal assistance, "he added.

He also urged  Incidin Bangladesh to bring the case of his brother to a legal battle so that justice can be availed.

Another victim Saima, who recently returned home from Oman, said, "I was deprived of six months' salaries while I worked in Oman. But I do not have any documents or evidence for that matter to challenge my employer legally."

While addressing the event, Advocate Salma Ali, president of Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers' Association, said, "Access to justice is very hard in Bangladesh, especially for human trafficking cases. Only 3-4% of cases have been resolved over the years."

"The risk of human trafficking has increased in the post-Covid period as many migrant workers have returned home amid the pandemic. They may fall into the trap of traffickers now," said AKM Masud Ali, executive director of Incidin Bangladesh. 

"The service centre has launched partially. However, the full-fledged digital services will commence within a month," he added. 

According to Brac Migration Programme, less than 1% of human trafficking cases ended in a conviction between 2012 and March 2021.

Around 5,738 cases were filed in connection with human trafficking after the Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act was enacted in 2012.

Among the cases, only 282 have been cleared so far and only 36 have ended in conviction. The remaining 5,456 cases are still pending, meaning that the case settlement rate is at 4%.