"Trafficking is the illicit and clandestine movements of persons across national borders...with the end goal of forcing women and girl children into sexually or oppressive and exploitative situations for profit of recruiters, traffickers and crime syndicates as well as other illegal activities related to trafficking such as forced domestic labour, false marriage, clandestine employment and and false adoption"--United Nations.
"We should never call the victims of trafficking as commercial sex workers, because by calling them CSW we legitimize prostitution"--Centre for women and children studies, BAngladesh--Consultation meeting-Trafficking and prostitution in the context of viloence against women and children.
The city streets of Bangladesh are undoubtedly where most child prostitutes begin, but it is hardly the end of their story. Among the major causes of child prostitution is the trafficking of girl children across the country's borders to neighbouring regions like India, Pakistan, Nepal.
Statistics:
In a global conference held in Dhaka early in 1999(27-29 January), Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) the organiser, revealed in its Convenor of Bangladesh Chapter that about 200,000 thousand Bangladeshi women and girls had been trafficked to Pakistan alone during the past decade. The deliberations in the Conference further revealed qouting reports of UNICEF and SAARC that an average of 4,500 women and children from Bangladesh are annually trafficked across the border while around 14% of the sex workers in Calcutta are Bangladeshi women who have been trafficked at some point of time.
Trafficking in Bangladesh--Global Factbook
Causes:
The geographic location of Bangladesh is advantageous for the illegal trade of trafficking. It has a long and porous border with India and Myanmar. This makes it convinient procurers or middlemen to traffick children amd women across to the neighboring countries.
Poverty, unemployment, lack of opportunities, displacement, illeteracy, lack of awareness, globalization, sex tourism, peculiar socila conditions, use of internet for sex trade, increasing migration of labor are the often cited as the main causes of rising incidences of trafficking and sexual exploitations of women and children. About one million people have been displaced during the past decade due to river erosion alone besides besides development and natural disaster induced displacements. They form the core target group of trafficking as they easily fall prey to the allurements of better job abroad, good living conditions, and for the womrn, a happy, 'married' life. . The large number of of internally displaced persons due to river eosion every year, coupled with victims of natural calamities like floods, cyclones and development induced displaced people craete a new section of society who sudenly become landless, homeless and assetless. They migrate to the urban areas in search of jobs and take shelter in slums, sidewalks or any vacant places. The slums and impoverished homesteads are the potential sources of procurement of young girls and minor boys for prostitution and other forms of seual exploitation. Some of the agents pretend to marry the young girls without dowry and the poor parents gladly consent to this so-called arranged marriage.
Nature of victimization of women and children in trafficking:
1. Children used as jockey in camel race.
2. Young maids forced to provide sexual services to the male members of the household
3. Unpaid child labor for domestic work
4.Girls forced to entertain foreign guests and high officials
5. Girls forced to work in massage parlors and exclusive night clubs
6. Sex tourism
7. Children and young women used in pornography industry
8. Dead bodies of trafficked women and children for organ transplants, use of skeleton, anatomy. Women and children are taken from Bangladesh to India for medical students as there is a scarcity of skeletons in the neighboring country due to ritual of burning dead bodies.
9. Living and daed bodies are both used for research.
10. Unauthorized adoption of children by foreign couples/families.
11. Selling of women and children to brothel owners and forced into prostitution.
The traffickers versus the Law:
Trafficking is carried out by well-organized regional gangs who have links with the law enforcement agencies. The victims of trafficking are very vulnerable to both physical and sexual abuse,by those who are buying and selling them and by members of the border patrolling and law enforcement agencies. they are sometimes taken into custody as illegal immigrants, on false charges of adultery or for their own 'safety'. Efforts to repatriate children are often hampered by their lack of identification papers.
Only a small proportion of traffickers are arrested. the police recorded approximately 150 trafficking cases involving women and children in 1995 and 1996. As of Februaury 1997, over 240 people had been charge-sheeted in connection with these cases, but only wo convictions had been secured ( as against 10 acquittals).
Bangladesh has ratified a good number has ratified a good number of UN Conventions such as the Convention Against All Forms of Discrimination against women (CEDAW), Convention on the Rights of the Child(CRC) and enacted laws like the Women and Children Repression ( Special Provision) Act 1995, where trafficking is defined as a criminal offense. Everyday, the conventions are being violated with the trafficking of of young women and children to neighboring countries as commodities.
According to the Article 18 of CEDAW, State parties undertake to submit to the General Secretary of the United nations,. for consideration by the committee, a report on the legislature, judicial, administrative or other measures which have been adopted to give effect to the provisions of the present conventions and on the progress made in this respect. Reporters often indicate difficulties in fulfilling the obligations under the present Convention. The issues related to trafficking and prostitution are not highlighted in the government's reports.
One of the loopholes in the existing laws is the system of affidavit. According to the Constitution of Bangladesh, any person of 18 years can enter into any profession. The pimps take advantage of this provision. Through affidavit, a large number of minor girls are being declared or declaring themselves as 18 years old and entering into prostitution. This also ends up creating confusion about the legality of prostitution. The highest penalty for trafficking and prostitution in Bangladesh is death penalty in the case of children and life imprisonment in the case of women. Law enforcing agencies, however like Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and the police hamper the implementation of the laws. There are many outposts in the border areas which are being overlooked by these agencies.
Many underaged Bangladeshi girls can be found in India. But neither government is taking the responsibility of repatriatating the victims. The Bangladeshi NGOs are working vigorously for this purpose, but the governments evade negotiations owing to the expenses to be borne for rehabilitation of the trafficked girls.
The Government's Pledge:
Government's efforts to date to control trafficking have comprised legislative measures and the strengthening of border control posts. Future action includes the preparation of a situation analysis, and a five-year project aimed at eliminating the trafficking of children (with special emphasis on cross-border trafficking). The project will tackle the problem by raising awareness on child trafficking in society, improving implementation of the relevant laws by the police and the courts, and developng child-friendly procedures for rescuing and repatriating victims together with programs for their rehabilitation and reintegration. It is a collaborative effort between the Government and the NGOs. NGOs will play a key role in the implementation and monitoring of the project. The initiative of this prject followed the participation of the Bangladesh Government in the 1996 World Congress against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Stockholm.
Trafficking and prostitution--Commentary