US report upgrades Bangladesh’s ranking on trafficking list
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released the 2020 Trafficking in Persons report on Jun 25, upgrading Bangladesh’s ranking from Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 2.
The Tier 2 ranking means the Bangladesh government is making significant and increasing efforts to meet the minimum standards towards the elimination of trafficking.
But there is more work to be done to fully meet these standards, and put an end to this despicable practice, the US Embassy in Dhaka said on its website, commenting on the report.
“This significant step reflects Bangladesh’s progress in combating human trafficking over the past year, including standing up seven anti-trafficking tribunals and taking action against recruiting agencies exploiting Bangladeshis seeking to work abroad,” it said.
“We congratulate the government and committed civil society actors who fought tirelessly to pursue accountability for traffickers and freedom for victims. They are Bangladesh’s heroes in the fight against global human trafficking,” US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R Miller and Ambassador-at-Large to Combat Trafficking in Persons John Cotton Richmond wrote.
In addition, the government continued to allow humanitarian access to the Rohingya camps. However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. Law enforcement decreased investigations into trafficking cases, continued to deny credible reports of official complicity in trafficking,
and, despite hundreds of credible reports of forced labour and sex trafficking of Rohingya, did not open investigations to verify these reports. Despite widespread reports of child sex trafficking, including in licensed brothels, the government did not make efforts to identify victims or investigate the persistent reports, according to the report.
While international organisations identified more than 1,000 potential Bangladeshi forced labour victims in Saudi Arabia during the reporting period, the government did not report efforts to provide the majority with services or criminally investigate allegations of forced labor.
The report by the US State Department has also mentioned a trafficking ring operated by a Bangladesh parliamentarian who bribed Kuwaiti officials to bring more than 20,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers on work visas that stipulated a different job and lower salaries than their contracts.
The report did not directly mention the name of Bangladesh MP Mohammad Shahid Islam but provided details about the scam. The parliamentarian paid the workers less wages than agreed upon or not at all, according to the report.
The Kuwaiti attorney general detained Shahid Islam, nicknamed Papul, in the country’s central prison for a period of 21 days after interrogations of 17 days, according to an Arab Times report. Kuwait earlier froze the bank accounts of Shahid and his company following his arrest on charges of human trafficking and money laundering. Shahid holds about five million Kuwaiti dinars, or Tk 1.38 billion, in those accounts.
The move aims to stop Shahid from withdrawing or transferring money from these accounts from which funds will be confiscated if the charges are proved in court, prosecutors said. The public prosecutor in Kuwait decided to continue the imprisonment of the remaining suspects.
Laxmipur-2 MP Shahid was arrested on Jun 8 in Kuwait’s Musharraf area. Having travelled to Kuwait as a migrant worker, Shahid now has permanent resident status and runs his own business there. His wife Salina Islam is also an MP in Bangladesh from a seat reserved for women.
