The US State Department in its 2023 Trafficking in Persons report has noted significant efforts of the Bangladesh government to eliminate trafficking, keeping the country in Tier 2.

“The government of Bangladesh does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period, considering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, if any, on its anti-trafficking capacity; therefore Bangladesh remained on Tier 2,” according to the report released by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington on Wednesday.

As mandated by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), the report assesses government efforts around the world to combat human trafficking and highlights strategies to address this crime and protect the victims.

This year's report, the 23rd edition, includes narratives for 188 countries and territories, including the United States.

The report ranked countries in four tiers with Tier 1 being the best performing.

Tier 1 means countries whose governments fully meet the TVPA's minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

Tier 2 means countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA's minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

Tier 2 Watch List means countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA's minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards, and for which: the estimated number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing and the country is not taking proportional concrete actions; or there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year, including increased investigations, prosecutions and convictions of trafficking crimes, increased assistance to victims, and decreasing evidence of complicity in severe forms of trafficking by government officials.

Tier 3 is the worst form in which countries whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA's minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so are listed.

Most of the countries are in Tier 2. Bangladesh shares the rank with rich countries like Switzerland, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. The US puts itself in Tier 1.

The State Department noted that the Bangladesh government had made efforts on many fronts, including increasing prosecutions and convictions of traffickers, increasing investigations of cases involving Rohingya victims for the first time in recent years and taking steps to lower some recruitment fees associated with government-run recruitment agencies.

The government extended its national action plan to 2025 and published its first national study on human trafficking in Bangladesh.

“However, the government did not meet the minimum standards in several key areas. Although the government increased law enforcement efforts, it did not take adequate steps to address internal sex trafficking or official complicity, both of which remained pervasive; and it did not consistently hold accountable sub-agents conducting illegal recruitment operations,” said the report.

“Victim protection efforts remained insufficient, including shelter services and availability, and the government identified and referred to care significantly fewer victims.

“The government did not uniformly employ SOPs (standard operating procedures) to identify trafficking victims, including among vulnerable populations, and authorities continued to conflate human trafficking and migrant smuggling in many cases. Furthermore, courts sentenced the majority of traffickers to fines rather than jail time, which weakened deterrence, undercut the government's overall anti-trafficking efforts and likely created security and safety concerns for victims,” read the report.

Recommendations

The department also made several recommendations to improve the situation further.

Those include: “Increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes, including complicit officials, and seek adequate penalties for convicted traffickers, which should involve significant prison terms.

“Increase efforts to identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations, including adopting formal victim identification procedures and screening processes to prevent inappropriate penalization of potential victims, and refer victims to appropriate services.

“Strengthen the capacity of Anti-Trafficking Tribunal personnel to prosecute and adjudicate human trafficking cases, and expand tribunals to heavy caseload areas.

“Increase training for officials, including law enforcement, labour inspectors, immigration officers and healthcare providers, on the identification of trafficking cases and referring victims to services.”