When the state is engrossed in all sorts of lofty matters, minor issues slip by unnoticed. Bangladesh is on the verge of becoming an Asian tiger. The big bucks piling up in Swiss banks is ample evidence of Bangladesh being the home of the filthy rich.
In 2016, these well-heeled Bangladeshis deposited Tk 5600 crore (Tk 56 billion) in Swiss banks. They deposited Tk 4200 crore (Tk 42 billion) in 2014. How much money was deposited in the preceding years, only God and the bank officials know.
The names of the depositors remain unknown. If I had even a hundred thousand taka in the banks, I would be proudly declaring that to all and sundry. But why aren’t these big depositors able to proudly declare their wealth? They are sadly deprived form the joy of declaring their money. Once the bucks are in the banks, no one can snatch it away, so what is their problem in being open about it?
Our own country is replete with banks. Why are they sending money to foreign banks rather than keep it in the banks at home? Observers say, before the election there will be an outflow of ill-gotten wealth from the country. If after the election these folk find it difficult to remain in the country, they’ll have the back-up funds to remain abroad.
Honestly earned income can easily be kept in local banks. But the mammoth amounts of money amassed in the Swiss banks, cannot be earned simply from business and industries. Even a job at the pinnacle of government can’t earn so much. This wealth has been made by misappropriating government resources, pilfering from government projects, human trafficking and many other ways and means.
If things are like this for a lower mid-income country, when Bangladesh is promoted to a higher income country, the Swiss banks will beg for mercy, saying they don’t have enough vaults to store all that money! They’ll say build silos and stash your cash in our own country.
This is a country of so much wealth, yet people are dying at sea, sailing off precariously in search for a better life. In a way they are lucky to be devoured by the sharks, rather than by the beasts in human form. These human beasts roam the world more than ever before.
On 29 June Prothom Alo reported that human trafficker rings in Bangladesh and India are capitalising on the ignorance and unawareness of women and children in Bangladesh, to sell them to brothels in India. There has sadly been an exponential increase in children, young girls and women in India’s brothels. Bangladesh’s high commissioner in India wrote a letter to the home ministry, urging that necessary action be taken to halt this trade in hapless humans.
The news report stated that Bangladeshi diplomats in Delhi and Mumbai visited a shelter in Mumbai last May. They talked to 40 inmates there, finding that 29 of them were from Bangladesh.
Quoting Bangladesh’s deputy high commissioner in Mumbai, Prothom Alo reported that from February 2014 to December 2016, a total of 370 women and children were sent back to Bangladesh after being rescued from Mumbai, Goa, Pune, Kerala, Daman and Tamil Nadu.
The letter sent by the high commissioner in Delhi stated that poverty was driving parents to hand over their offspring to strangers. Many were being duped by offers of marriage or overseas jobs. Some women, in search of a better life, were falling prey to these traffickers and ending up in Indian brothels. Though they are from the same social, economic and cultural background, women from India’s West Bengal and northeast state are much fewer in number at these brothels. It is said that awareness programmes of the media and stern implementation of anti-trafficking laws have played a strong role in this regard. In Bangladesh, laxness in applying anti-trafficking laws and lack of awareness has paved the way for human trafficking to India.
Prothom Alo reported on the same day that the US ‘Trafficking in Persons Report’ stated that the Bangladesh government failed to maintain the minimum standard in prevention of human trafficking. There has been a decrease in investigations, cases and punishment regarding human trafficking. The government has not taken appropriate measures against members of the law enforcement, border security and manpower-related officials who have been accused of involvement in this crime.
Though it is given the broad term ‘human trafficking’, it is basically young women and young girls who are being smuggled across the border. Have we taken a moment to close our eyes and conjure up the image of our girls who have been lured by promises of employment abroad, only to end up in these hell holes?
Media reports depict that these girls are not just being sent to brothels in India, Pakistan or the Middle East, but are suffering in various countries of the world. One day they’ll be found dead on the streets, or under a tree in the park. This is the fate of these unfortunate women of ours. They contract all sorts of diseases in the brothels, go untreated, driven out because of their diseases and suffer till death.
If Islamic militants are a despicable lot, women traffickers are no less. Like the militants, these traffickers too have their hideouts. It is hardly believable that the law enforcers can’t unearth these hideouts. They can crush the militant dens all over the country, but can’t do this?
Trafficking women and girls is not just illegal, it is a heinous crime. This crime is a thriving , requiring no capital, but with huge returns. It is imperative to look into the socio-economic circumstances that drive the girls to step into these traps. It is also the government’s moral duty to rehabilitate the women and girls rescued from these brothels.
Source: Prothom Alo
