US and Bangladesh launch counter-human trafficking workshop

Ambassador Miller and Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Anisul Huq, MP, inaugurated a counter-human trafficking workshop in Dhaka for tribunal judges presiding over human trafficking. 

The event was organised by the Fight Slavery and Trafficking In-Persons (FSTIP) project and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said a press release.

Strong collaboration between the United States and Bangladesh led to the establishment of seven special tribunals to prosecute trafficking-in-persons (TIP) and the implementation of the five-year National Plan of Action to combat human trafficking. 

Highlighting US support for Bangladesh's counter-human trafficking programmes, Ambassador Miller said, "Working with you to fight human trafficking is a priority of the US Embassy. This workshop reaffirms our commitment to partner with the Government of Bangladesh, civil society, the private sector, and trafficking survivors to end trafficking in persons," 

"Human trafficking is modern slavery," Ambassador Miller said. "It has no place in our world. Anywhere." 

Apart from Ambassador Miller and Minister Huq, Md Golam Sarwar, secretary, Law and Justice Division, Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs; Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, director general, Judicial Administration Training Institute (JATI); Md Golam Kibria, senior district and sessions judge, director of training, JATI, spoke at the event. 

Despite the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act of 2012, American and Bangladeshi law enforcement and judicial partners recognize prosecution and conviction rates for human trafficking can be improved. USAID's $10 million FSTIP project is helping Bangladesh more effectively prosecute and convict human traffickers through training like this week's workshop for justice sector officers, prosecutors, and judges. 

Bangladesh's attainment of Tier 2 status for the last two consecutive years in the US Department of State's TIP Report demonstrates the growing success of the US/Bangladesh partnership in combatting human trafficking. 

In the past five years, USAID has trained 569 judges and more than 1,000 police, public prosecutors, and lawyers on human trafficking issues so trafficking perpetrators can be caught, tried, and punished. US programmes and funding also support community organisations to provide shelter, healthcare, counselling, life skills and entrepreneurship training, and job placement to over 3,000 trafficking survivors.