Counter-Trafficking Interventions in Prevention, Protection and Prosecution for Victims of trafficking in Persons in Bangladesh”

Project Discription:

The project aims at achieving an overall objective of strengthening counter-trafficking interventions in prevention, protection, rescue, voluntary repatriation, reintegration and prosecution for victims of trafficking in persons in Bangladesh. IOM considered 18 out of 64 districts as the probable areas for implementation of this project. The majority of these districts are located along the Bangladesh and India border. These districts have been identified as major source of trafficking regions by various researches and reports.

To ensure efficient implementation and ownership at the district level, advocacy meetings with district administration and police officials, Deputy Commissioners, Superintendent of Police and other district level government officials, will be held to discuss the project activities to ensure their involvement/support in implementing project activities. Similarly, at the thana/union level, meetings with Locally Elected Bodies (LEB) will be organized to make them aware about the importance of the issue and their role in preventing this crime.

The project will carry out drama and media campaign addressing the issue of trafficking to raise the awareness of the community people. To address trafficking in children, a school campaign will be organized which will include students, parents, teachers and school committee members. Schools will be selected based on the following criteria:

• Located in the project area and have at least 200-500 students.
• Existence of a School Management Committee.
• Forthcoming teachers and Management Committee, interested to learn about the issue of human trafficking

The community campaign will also aim to engage a wider range of people in the community,
such as religious leaders and local elites.

The project will also focus on the skill training and economic empowerment of the rescued and repatriated trafficking victims.

Basic Information of the project

• Duration: 30 months ( 01 January’06 to 30 june)
• Funding: USAID/Bangladesh.
• Executive Agency: International Organization for Migration ( IOM)

Geographical Coverage: 18 districts of Bangladesh.

Implemented area: Dhaka  and Munshiganj.

1. Goal and Objectives:
The goal of the project will be reduction of trafficking in persons from Bangladesh. The overall objective of the project is to strengthen counter-trafficking interventions in prevention, protection, rescue, voluntary repatriation, reintegration and prosecution of traffickers in Bangladesh.

ii. Major features of the project:
Prevention:

• Raise awareness of trafficking in persons in Bangladesh among the general public as well as specific targeted groups in 18 districts.
• Assist in creating income generation opportunities for 975 trafficking victims/survivors/rescued persons from harmful situation.

Protection:

• Provide direct return and reintegration assistance to victims of trafficking.
• Strengthen the capacity of locally elected bodies, law enforcement agencies and NGOs to better identify and assist victims of trafficking.

Prosecution:

• Strengthen the capacity of police officers including Thana Police in charge (OIC), prosecutors and lawyers to manage trafficking cases.

iii. Target Audience:
Partners of the project are-

•  Government  officials including police.
• Low Enforcement Agencies.
• locally elected bodies (LEB)
• NGOs

Target groups of the project are-

• Victims/survivors/rescued from harmful situation
• School children,parents and teachers.
• Local elites
• Bar association members, public prosecutors and lawyers
• Community  people.

1. Results:

Result at a glance:-

• A total of 116 (95 male and 21 female) Pourashava/ Union Parishad Chairman & Members were sensitized about the issue of human trafficking and how they can help to prevent human trafficking.
• A total of 78 (77 male and 01 female) Bazar Committee members were made aware of the issue of human trafficking.
• A total of 135 (129 male and 06 female) local leaders were aware about the issue of human trafficking and their role in preventing human trafficking.
• A total of 118 (55 male and 63 female) members of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) were informed about the issue and their role to prevent human trafficking.
• A total of 210 students (143 male and 67 female) students were aware about the issue of human trafficking.
• A total of 128 (55 male & 73 female) parents were made aware about the issue of trafficking in persons and their vital role to protect their children from being trafficked.
• A total of 84 (50 male and 34 female) teachers which also includes members of the management committee were about the different aspects of human trafficking and their in preventing human trafficking.   

2. Activities:

• Carried out 09 meetings with Locally Elected Bodies (LEB) at the Pourashava and the different Union Parishads of 02 Districts with the Chairman and Members to inform them about the issue and to get their cooperation to implement different field activities.
• Carried out 04 meetings with Bazar Committee members to inform them about the issue and the vital role they can play to prevent human trafficking as bazaar is the place from where recruiters collect their prey.
• Carried out 07 meetings with Local Leader to aware them about the issue and to involve them in preventing human trafficking.
• Carried out 04 meetings with the members of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to discuss the issue of human trafficking and to request them to take this issue forward.
• Carried out 06 meetings with school students to aware them about the different aspects of human trafficking.
• Carried out 06 meetings with the parents of the students to aware them about the issue of human trafficking and also to discuss their roles and responsibilities to protect their children.