By Sushmita Choudhury, Rokeya ChowdhuryHuman Trafficking is an interstate criminal activity that confines humanity in the cage of capitalism by taking advantage of globalisation. The ever-widening expansion of market economy coupled with the increasing demand of cheap labour causes human trafficking.
The victims of human trafficking get trapped in the exploitative situation from where they cannot escape. To combat this fast growing illegal business, a series of national and international instruments have been adopted, and stern punishment has been sanctioned against the perpetrators. Most countries of the world have national mechanisms to prevent and punish this heinous crime.
To respond to the changing parameters of human trafficking, we need to look into it with an updated scope. Besides the constitutional provisions, a newly enacted law entitled “The Human Trafficking Suppression and Deterrence Act, 2012” (HTSDA) is a momentous breakthrough to combat human trafficking. This legislation, for the first time, endeavored to introduce a holistic approach to address this extremely complex crime.
A robust moveHuman trafficking, for its clandestine nature, is hard to be tracked in all cases. Sometimes it becomes difficult to distinguish the crime as it gets intermingled with its close associates. We believe that the newly enacted Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act, 2012, framed in line with international instruments, has the potential to remove such confusions attuned to human trafficking. The law will also be able to control the potential traffickers if implemented properly.
Section 3 of the Act bridges the gap among all of the dynamics which might arise in terms of victim identification and punishing the perpetrators. For instance, according to the Act, human trafficking includes selling, buying, recruitment, transportation, transfer, or harboring of any person for the purpose of sexual and labour exploitation, or any other form of exploitation whether within or outside of Bangladesh. It involves the exploitation of people through force, coercion, threat and deception, and contains the human rights abuses such as debt bondage and deprivation of liberty.
It is notable that similar to violations across the border, there are significant inhuman treatments and rights violations taking place within the territory of Bangladesh that fulfill the elements of human trafficking as provided in the Act.
The HTSDA covers not only suppression of human trafficking; rather victim protection, rehabilitation and prevention are very much within the ambit of the Act. The HTSDA being holistic in nature includes the person as a perpetrator who with an ill motive induces others to move for work abroad although the potential risks are known to traffickers. So, combating the dynamics of human trafficking is a challenging task for law enforcers, prosecutors and social workers. Towards that end the HTSDA is a definite improvement over the piecemeal penal provisions in the Penal Code and Suppression of Cruelty towards Women and Children Act.
Removal of the ‘gender biased’ perceptionIt is an undeniable fact that usually women and children become the worst victims in a sex trafficking enterprise. Therefore, sex trafficking attains a hugely disproportionate amount of public focus. However, the growing market economy and its need for cheap labor never exclude a man from becoming a trafficked victim. It is estimated that in the vicinity of labor trafficking, 80% of adult males fall prey to the lucrative job offers abroad and eventually face long working hours, low or no pay, harsh treatments, fees, fines and debts, psychological and physical abuses. The ordeals of unfortunate adult male have barely been identified.
Instead they are treated as illegal immigrants and deported without any investigation of their cases. The HTSDA has included men under the term “person” under section 2 (13), and has paved the way to bring the perpetrators who engage adult male person in degrading and inhumane work environment before justice.
People deprived of getting minimum decent and dignified life, suffering under debt bondage, and severe infringement of dignity also cover the huge amplitude of the term exploitation as enshrined in section 2 (15) of the Act. Exclusion of adult male persons feature a skewed representation of the problem which distorts the real view of the picture and it leads us to imbalanced responses to human trafficking.
Death valley for fortune seekersHuman Trafficking is an ugly wound in the contemporary society which obtains its fuel from the trafficking agencies or organised criminal groups which seem to be sophisticated business enterprises and this framework is responsible to manipulate the fortune of thousands of vulnerable people. Even the urban Bangladeshi fortune seekers are also trapped in this death valley. The highly dynamic and heterogeneous nature of the group keeps them above suspicion, and puts the common people in dilemma to prevent their evil activities. These group of persons, irrespective of their nationality, assemble generally for a specific period of time and maintain the mission of a concrete crime like trafficking collectively.
Moreover, it is evident that those organised criminal groups have expanded the trafficking business and have become a prime source of cheap labour. The HTDSA through Section 2(16) imperatively addresses the notion of organised criminal groups and takes adequate initiative to punish the perpetrators.
Human Trafficking is a curse in the kingdom of humanity. The pathetic circumstances of exploitation and the untold agony of mankind have also been portrayed in Tagore’s legendary creation “Rakta Karabi,” where the dwellers of Jakhapuri suffered adversely and were even restrained from sharing their ordeals with others. They were confined in the cage of the evil wish of the unkind emperor of Jakkhapuri. Nandini, an enlightened soul, appeared before them to remove the severe wounds of their hearts and kindle the light of freedom and justice.
Human trafficking objectifies humans as commodities, snatches away all humanistic expressions and freedom as if they are under an evil spell like that of Jakkhapuri. Enactment of a law alone, however solemn it might be, does not lead to solution of a complex offence like human trafficking, unless it is accompanied with appropriate rules and vigilant, dedicated advocates for the oppressed and the unheard. Finally, we need passionate hearts like Nandini the character in Tagore’s Rakta Karabi that would guide us the way to end this worldwide epidemic widely known as human trafficking.
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