Bangladesh has called for external efforts to deal with human trafficking, as it believes illegal migration is a regional and global problem.
Maintaining this, foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque says poverty is not the only reason behind the menace.
“There’re some factors and forces behind human trafficking through sea which are beyond our control,” he told reporters at the foreign ministry on Tuesday.
“It (poverty) is not essentially the main driver. The driver is somewhere else. That does not mean we are saying poverty is not a reason.”
The foreign secretary said Bangladesh or any other country alone cannot resolve it. “It’s a multi-causer, multi-dimensional and multi-layer problem.”
About actions taken by the government, he said the government would bring back rescued Bangladeshis after proper verification within a month, if possible.
“According to our initial estimates, there’re about less than 30 percent of Bangladeshis among the victims recently rescued,” he said adding that the number could be around 1200-1500 which they cannot tell exactly now.
The foreign secretary said they will arrange to conclude the nationality verification of these people within the shortest possible time, and repatriate them to Bangladesh.
Earlier, Bangladesh thanked Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar for bringing the victims to safety and providing them necessary humanitarian assistance.
Shahidul Haque said Bangladesh has a strong policy to combat human trafficking and prime minister Sheikh Hasina has shown zero tolerance to that end.
He said Bangladesh’s performance was very good in the last three years in combating human trafficking as the global report on trafficking in persons show that. “We got surprise seeing the growth of human trafficking in a particular month. There’s a key reason but I don’t want to mention it.”
Asked about the possible involvement of government employees in human trafficking, he said he is not aware of such thing but the law enforcing agencies will look into it.
Shahidul Haque also said human trafficking is everywhere in the world even Europe and America.
He said the issue should not be politicised. “If it’s politicised, the victims will suffer.”
The foreign secretary also said a big criminal network is working in the region and huge money is exchanged annually in human and drug trafficking.
He also said the government is also open to address the issue bilaterally and mentioned that a memorandum of understanding will be signed with India on combating human trafficking during Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit.
Source: Prothom Alo
