Dhaka, Bangladesh 15 September 2021 – I currently work in a unit that addresses human trafficking. I’m part of the criminal investigations department. When I first joined the team, I learnt a lot, especially about investigating human trafficking, related international laws and protocols.
When I joined the unit, I had several opportunities to attend UNODC workshops, delivered under the framework of GLO.ACT-Bangladesh, which taught me about the legislation and patterns and trends concerning human trafficking. This made me think that there are bigger things to be done in this field.
Moreover, UNODC and Interpol launched Operation Turquesa, and my supervisor and I both worked on it. Following the Operation, my supervisor and I exchanged experiences and lessons learnt.
In the past, my supervisor was female, but she has now been transferred. A large part of my work involves engaging with a broad range of stakeholders, including embassies, the Foreign Ministry, NGOs and many more.
Currently, we have more than 50 officers who are directly engaged with human trafficking cases, among them a very small number of female officers. But we need more; many of the trafficking cases involve female victims who would be more comfortable engaging with a female officer.
As a unit, we are looking at over 300 potential human trafficking cases, which means some of our officers have more than 5 cases on average.
The 2012 Act and the 2017 Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Rules are very comprehensive. Everything is covered. But the reality is that as an investigator, I need to be able to collect all the evidence, especially in cases where those who migrated to work abroad might find themselves in a human trafficking situation.
We know that the prosecution rate is not satisfactory. That the sentencing rate is not good enough. The urgency is to ensure that we can access and collect the evidence we need. We try and work with embassies to ensure better collaboration on evidence collection.
In Bangladesh, the criminal investigations department and special public prosecutors need to work together to ensure a successful outcome. In my country, as per our laws, we register it with the courts whenever a case has been lodged. It’s really a two-way system. Now, we also have the Anti-Human Trafficking Offences tribunals.
When an investigation is concluded, as per the provisions of our 2017 Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Rules, investigating officers, before making their final report, must have their police report signed off by the special public prosecutor. These prosecutors are now all associated with the newly established Anti-Human Trafficking Offence tribunals.
Like I said, the 2017 Rules are very comprehensive. Yet, until very recently, we just had not worked through all the provisions in them. Neither the police investigators nor the specialized prosecutors were aware of all the provisions included in the 2017 Rules.
Then we started attending different workshops organized by UNODC under the GLO.ACT-Bangladesh project. In these workshops, we learned a lot more about international legislation and the detailed provisions included in the 2017 Rules. We had long discussions, sat together, and identified problems. We discovered that we were not practising as per the Rules.
Now the prosecutors also feel the honour of their work in the process. Through their involvement and review of the material submitted to them, we can minimize mistakes. Having prosecutors sign off on police investigation reports before going to court is vital to ensure better trial outcomes.
From our side, we know how busy the prosecutors are. Yet, the police are often investigating cases outside the capital. This means that my investigating officers collect the evidence sometimes from miles away. Then they come back and submit the report for review and sign off by the prosecutors. But we have real challenges in terms of logistics, travel, and costs. When we receive the feedback from the prosecutors that we need to address issues and/or collect more evidence, we need to go back and address these. This is a costly and, at times, not very efficient process.
Right now, we have cases piling up. We have time limits on investigations. Every trafficking case has a particular time limit, which is 90 days. What we really need is a digital system. We need a digital platform that would enable prosecutors and investigative officers to communicate more effectively and efficiently.
Since we became more are aware of the provisions in the 2017 Rules through UNODC/GLO.ACT-Bangladesh workshops, we flagged it with our superiors and every trafficking case now goes to special public prosecutors. We have about 50 human trafficking cases that we engaged with the prosecutors on. However, due to COVID-19, many things have been stalled. Some of the reports that concern the 50 cases received feedback from the prosecutors. As a result, the police reports are being adjusted and finalized to incorporate the comments. So far, we feel that the review process adds value and improves the final report, but we have to wait and see if the trial outcomes change.
Apart from the provision discussed above, other requirements are ignored or under practised. We need to not just look at protection but also look at prevention, especially crime prevention. We need to engage with all relevant departments. More discussions, with the support of UNODC under the GLO.ACT-Bangladesh project, could be had amongst the relevant departments and offices charged with addressing human trafficking.
Looking ahead, it would be helpful to have more UNODC/GLO.ACT-Bangladesh facilitated workshops that engage the public prosecutors and investigators on what issues need to be considered when working on human trafficking cases. A sort of exchange workshop that can help facilitate the implementation of the 2017 Rules and likely lead to better quality prosecutions and an increased conviction rate.
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The Global Action against Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants - Bangladesh (GLO.ACT - Bangladesh) is a joint initiative by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) being implemented in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). GLO.ACT-Bangladesh builds on a global community of practice set in motion in GLO.ACT 2015-2019 in 13 partner countries across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
Through targeted, innovative and demand-driven interventions, the GLO.ACT aims to support the Government of Bangladesh and civil society organizations to more effectively fight the crimes of human trafficking and migrant smuggling across the country. The project works on developing evidence-based information on trafficking and smuggling patterns and trends, legislative review and harmonization, capability development of criminal justice actors, and international cooperation. The project also provides direct assistance to victims of human trafficking and migrants in vulnerable situations through the strengthening of identification, referral, and protection mechanisms. The project is fully committed to mainstreaming Human Rights and Gender Equality considerations across all of its activities.
The project is funded by the European Union.
For more information, please contact:
Mahdy Hassan: muhammad.hassan@un.org
unodc-glo.act@un.org
GLO.ACT Bangladesh
Twitter: @glo_act
