Digital boom behind spike in cyber-enabled human trafficking: Experts

The rapid adoption of digital technologies such as the internet, smartphones, and social media has led to a significant rise in cyber-enabled human trafficking, which is more covert and efficient than traditional methods, said experts at a roundtable today.

At the event titled "Current Trend of Human Trafficking in Bangladesh: A Call for Effective Action" organised by the Daily Prothom Alo and Winrock International, they urged everyone to use social media to run counter-campaigns to prevent human trafficking.

"Social media in Bangladesh, primarily Facebook, has become recruitment hubs and contact points for unskilled labour and unemployed youth. Numerous groups and pages dedicatedly lure the youth with promises of well-paying jobs abroad," Dipta Rakshit, project director of Winrock International's Ashshash project said as the keynote speaker.  

The Ashshash project, funded by the Swiss Development Agency and implemented by Winrock International, offers counselling, legal services, and economic empowerment to trafficking survivors.

"Traffickers have also resorted to increased reliance on social media, social and entertainment applications and platforms such as TikTok, Likee, Bigo and Telegram and messaging platforms to lure potential victims, particularly targeting women and girls for sex and labour trafficking," she added.

"It is challenging for children and adolescents to responsibly manage the freedom they have on social media, making them easy targets [of traffickers]," said AKM Masud Ali, executive director of INCIDIN Bangladesh, a public welfare organisation. 

"The curriculum should include topics that address issues unfamiliar to youth to prevent them from falling victim to such traps or being drawn to criminal activities," he added. 

Shariful Islam Hasan, associate director of BRAC, said, "Human traffickers are using Facebook to lure not only children and girls but also young male labour migrants from the country to go to Europe."

Professor BM Mainul Hossain, director of the Institute of Information Technology at Dhaka University, said, "Today, dark web data is being used for advertising or recruitment. You cannot access the dark web through regular browsers, and your activities cannot be traced."

"Our law enforcement agencies should also leverage these technologies to track the movements of individuals going abroad and ensure they reach their intended destinations," he said.

Tariqul Islam, country director of Justice and Care, said, "Criminals involved in cross-border human trafficking evade accountability. In this regard, we need to establish avenues to secure adequate cooperation from the relevant countries."

CR Abrer, executive director of Refugee and Migratory Movement Research Unit; Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation; Human rights defender Advocate Salma Ali; and Deepto TV CEO Fuad Chowdhury were among the speakers at the event, moderated by Firoz Choudhury, assistant editor of Prothom Alo.