Bangladesh making significant efforts in combating trafficking: US State Dept

Bangladesh is making significant efforts to eliminate trafficking, but does not fully meet the minimum standards for elimination, according to the US government's annual report ranking countries on their anti-trafficking standards.

The country demonstrated overall increasing efforts compared with the previous reporting period; therefore, the US State Department has kept the South Asian nation on Tier 2 in the 2025 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, which sorts countries into four tiers based on their efforts to fight trafficking.

The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons under the United States Department of State releases the report annually, while the Tier 2 countries are whose governments do not fully meet the TVPA’s (the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 as amended TVPA), minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

The TIP reports said, Bangladesh’s “efforts included increasing training on the victim identification guidelines and trauma-informed care for frontline officials and formally adopting an NRM (national referral mechanism). The government identified more trafficking victims and referred them to protection services.”

The government fell short of meeting the minimum standards in several critical areas. They “investigated, prosecuted, and convicted fewer traffickers and did not take adequate steps to address internal trafficking crimes – including sex trafficking and forced child labour – which remained pervasive,” the report read.

Labour inspectors had a serious lack of capacity to effectively monitor the informal sectors and ensure companies were held accountable for labour violations, according to the report.

Victim protection and reintegration efforts remained insufficient, particularly for Rohingya refugees and returning Bangladeshi migrant workers. The government continued to permit set recruitment fees that rendered many migrant workers indebted, increasing their vulnerability to trafficking.

Bangladesh increased protection efforts. According to the report, Bangladesh identified 1,462 trafficking victims, including 144 sex trafficking victims, 285 forced labour victims, and 1,033 victims of unspecified forms of trafficking. This compared with 1,210 victims identified in the previous reporting period.

Civil society and international organisations reported identifying an additional 3,410 trafficking victims, including 765 victims of sex trafficking, 2,572 victims of labour trafficking, and 73 victims of unspecified forms of trafficking.

The TIP report also briefed the government and civil society reporting on the nature and scope of trafficking.

It said, “Human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Bangladesh, and traffickers exploit victims from Bangladesh abroad. The government tended to disproportionately focus on international labour trafficking and dedicated less attention to internal trafficking, including bonded labour, domestic forced labour, sex trafficking, and the worst forms of child labour.”

In August 2024, civil unrest resulted in the fall of the previous government and collapse of the police force, which hindered Bangladesh’s ability to maintain consistent law enforcement and prosecution efforts.

The government reported it investigated 811 cases involving 3,334 suspects, including 115 sex trafficking cases, 227 labour trafficking cases, and 469 cases for unspecified forms of trafficking, and continued to investigate 394 cases from previous reporting periods. This compared with the investigation of 975 cases involving 4,042 suspects and continued investigation of 532 cases during the previous reporting period.

The government reported initiating prosecution of 452 suspects and continued prosecution of 94 suspects from the previous reporting period. This was a significant decrease compared with the prosecution of 3,475 suspects in the previous reporting period. The courts and tribunals convicted 103 traffickers.

This compared to the previous reporting period when courts convicted 407 traffickers. The government reported courts ceased operations for more than three months due to political unrest, hindering overall law enforcement efforts.

Courts sentenced 48 traffickers to between three months and 17 years’ imprisonment and fines of Tk 20,000 to Tk 2,500,000 ($168 to $21,008); the government did not provide sentencing information for the remaining traffickers.

Traffickers exploit Bangladeshi women and girls in forced labour and sex trafficking abroad, including in India, Pakistan, and Gulf countries. Female migrants seeking employment as domestic workers reportedly experience significant risks of trafficking, often in the Gulf states and Southeast Asia. Observers estimate that children constitute 40 per cent of Bangladeshi sex trafficking victims exploited abroad.

Observers estimate 120,000 children work in the Keraniganj industrial district’s garment factories, often in deplorable conditions; many children are indentured and serve as collateral for their parents’ loans.

Children also work on fishing vessels and in dangerous jobs in the fishing industry. Traffickers force children younger than 12 years into domestic work; violent incidents – including physical abuse, rape, and torture – were widespread yet underreported, with most cases settled privately.

In addition, there are an estimated 3.4 million children who are homeless in Bangladesh, and traffickers coerce some of these children into forced criminality or forced begging; traffickers force children, especially in border areas, to produce and transport drugs, particularly a methamphetamine-caffeine drug called yaba, according to the report.

Traffickers continue to exploit adults and children from all regions of the country in Bangladesh’s legal brothels, many illegal brothels, and private hotels. Child sex trafficking remained widespread with an estimated 30,000 girls exploited in Bangladesh.

Some women reported they had grown up in brothels because their mothers were engaged in commercial sex and brothel owners then exploited them in sex trafficking as children; observers report children growing up in Bangladesh’s red-light districts seldom escape these brothels.

Bangladesh hosts more than one million Rohingya refugees across 33 camps in the Cox’s Bazar district and island of Bhasan Char. Armed groups, militias, and criminal gangs forcibly recruit Rohingya refugees, including children; refugees are further vulnerable to trafficking, including forced recruitment, due to a lack of economic opportunities, insufficient camp oversight, corrupt policing, and distrust in the government.

In addition, traffickers exploit Rohingya from refugee camps in sex and labour trafficking in Bangladesh and transnationally. Traffickers transport Rohingya girls in Bangladesh and internationally to India, Malaysia, and Nepal for sex trafficking, sometimes using false promises of jobs or marriage; some traffickers “trade” these girls through the Internet.

Government restrictions on legal employment have led many Rohingya to migrate through illegal channels, thereby increasing their risk of trafficking.

The report noted that, under the previous government, some Bangladeshi officials allegedly facilitated the trafficking of Rohingya, including accepting bribes from traffickers to gain access to camps, and engage in extortion and harassment.

Rohingya girls and boys are recruited from camps and forced to labour as shop hands, fishers, rickshaw pullers, and domestic workers. Tourists have increased demands for extraterritorial sexual exploitation and abuse, including exploitation of Rohingya girls, near Cox’s Bazar, it added.

The 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report made a total of 12 recommendations for Bangladesh. These includes; increase efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes, and strengthen the capacity of Anti-Trafficking Tribunal personnel, increase the availability and quality of protection and reintegration services for all trafficking victims.

Other recommendations includes; eliminating recruitment fees charged to migrant workers and holding fraudulent labour recruiters criminally accountable, increase the capacity of labour inspectors to identify trafficking crimes, increase law enforcement efforts to investigate and prosecute credible allegations of trafficking of Rohingya, increase training for officials on a victim-cantered and trauma-informed approach and on victim identification and referral to services.

The report also stressed implementing the 2015 MOU with India to streamline the identification and repatriation of Bangladeshi trafficking victims; and adopting a revised and resourced comprehensive National Action Plan (NAP) that incorporates greater attention to prosecution and protection efforts, including dedicating resources to enhance victim care.