Dons stay out of law's reach

Law enforcers have so far failed to arrest any of the masterminds behind the trafficking of over 3,000 Bangladeshis through the Bay of Bengal this year.

They have been carrying out drives to track down human traffickers and their ring leaders since the trafficking victims were rescued mostly from Thailand and Malaysia in May and June.

In the last six months, law enforcers could only arrest around 400 alleged middlemen and local agents of human-trafficking networks, not any of the ring leaders. 

At the same time, the government has also failed to speed up investigation and trial of around 250 cases filed in June and July against around a thousand alleged human traffickers.

In July, Law Minister Anisul Huq said the cases filed over human trafficking would be tried in special tribunals.

But no such tribunal has been set up yet.

All of this adds to the gloomy picture of Bangladesh's fight against human trafficking, as the country like all other nations around the globe observes International Migrants Day today.

Though Bangladeshi investigators could not identify any of the masterminds behind the trafficking, the Thai government tracked down and arrested some leaders of human-trafficking networks, including a senior Thai army official.

Talking to The Daily Star recently, Mirza Abdullahel Baqui, special superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department of police, said, “We have been conducting raids regularly and trying to identify the masterminds. So far, we have not found involvement of any politician or people's representative in human trafficking.”

He said this in response to a query on alleged involvement of local influential politicians in human trafficking, especially in Cox's Bazar. With easy access to the Bay of Bengal, the district is considered the hub of the crime in the country.

The CID official said they found that traffickers from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia were involved in human trafficking. They also quizzed the victims and collected information about local and international agents of trafficking networks.

“Many traffickers have gone into hiding, as we have intensified our drives against them.”

Baqui claimed that human trafficking through the Bay of Bengal has stopped, as the destination countries have stepped up vigilance.

The Daily Star has talked to a number of trafficking victims rescued from Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar and Indonesia.

Some of them alleged that police released many of the detained traffickers in exchange for bribes, while others said local traffickers threatened them with dire consequence if they sought legal action against them.

“Local political leaders are backing the traffickers. They asked me to withdraw the case against traffickers,” Shariful Islam, a trafficking victim from Sirajganj Sadar, told this correspondent.

He along with 75 Bangladeshis was rescued by Thai police from a traffickers' camp in a dense jungle in Southern Thailand in June. He returned home in August with the assistance of Bangladesh government and International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Shariful later filed a case against two local traffickers with Sadar Police Station, but law enforcers are yet to arrest them.

The victims said the traffickers promised them lucrative jobs abroad and tricked them into taking perilous journeys. They lost their money and had to endure unbearable sufferings. 

“The traffickers, who tortured us day after day, are still at large,” said another trafficking victim, Jahangir Hossain, from Narsingdi.

Asked, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said the law enforcement agencies already identified some national and international agents of human trafficking networks.

“We are taking action against the traffickers identified by our law enforcers. The operation to curb human trafficking will continue,” he said.

On the cases filed over human trafficking, Law Secretary ASSM Zahirul Haque said they had directed public prosecutors across the country to take steps to speed up trial of the cases.

Contacted, Supreme Court Registrar General Syed Aminul Islam said he didn't have any information on the cases, and that they usually do not monitor such cases.

According to UN refugee agency UNHCR, around one lakh Bangladeshis and Rohingyas had been trafficked through the Cox's Bazar-Bay of Bengal route in the last one year.

Most of the Bangladeshi victims are from Cox's Bazar, Narsingdi and Sirajganj while the rest are from 52 other districts, says the IOM. 

The victims had to pay traffickers a ransom of Tk 2 lakh to Tk 2.5 lakh each, it says.

IOM National Programme Officer Asif Munier said it appears that human trafficking through the Bay of Bengal has stopped for now, but the law enforcement agencies must remain alert.

“It is difficult for Bangladesh to prevent human trafficking alone, as there is no concrete mechanism to combat trafficking regionally,” he told The Daily Star.