UNHCR chief slams govt over trafficking

Chief of the UN refugee agency today slammed Bangladesh government’s role in curbing human trafficking.

“So far police arrested only rickshaw pullers,” said Stina Ljungdell, chief of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), now in Dhaka.

“It would be naïve to think only rickshaw pullers and Rohingyas are involved in the international criminal gangs,” she said.

Hinting that the police barely scratched the surface of the trafficking net, Ljungdell hoped “authorities will investigate to ensure that the kingpins are brought to book”.

She was addressing a roundtable talk on “Doings in the end of human trafficking” organised by Shushashoner Jannoy Nagorik (Sujan) in the capital’s National Press Club.

Civil society members, who were present at the programme echoed Stina Ljungdell and demanded that the government must identify the Bangladeshi kingpins and arrest them.

Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela) Chief Executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan alleged that the government is reluctant to book the kingpins behind the human trafficking gangs in Bangladesh.

“It is really surprising that the people are leaving the country without any passport by the sea and the law enforcers know nothing about it,” she said.

Badiul Alam Majumdar, secretary of Sujan, said it is not enough to punish the human traffickers, rather it is also essential to address the root causes of the problem.