Ambassador Miller and Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Anisul Huq, M.P., inaugurated a counter-human trafficking workshop for tribunal judges in Dhaka. The event was organized by the Fight Slavery and Trafficking In-Persons (FSTIP) project and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). 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.
Ambassador Miller emphasized the United States' support for Bangladesh's anti-human trafficking efforts.
“Working with you to fight human trafficking is a priority of the U.S. 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. It has no place in our world. Anywhere,” Miller added.
Despite the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act of 2012, law enforcement and judicial partners in the United States and Bangladesh realize that human trafficking prosecution and conviction rates can be improved.
Through training like this week's workshop for justice sector officers, prosecutors, and judges, USAID's $10 million FSTIP project is assisting Bangladesh in more successfully prosecuting and convicting human traffickers.
Bangladesh's achievement of Tier 2 classification in the US Department of State's TIP Report for the past two years reflects the increased success of the US-Bangladesh relationship in combating human trafficking.
Bangladesh's government has increased its judicial sector's ability to prosecute human trafficking offenders thanks to US assistance. Over the last five years, USAID has taught 569 judges as well as over 1,000 cops, prosecutors, and lawyers on human trafficking issues so trafficking perpetrators can be caught, tried, and punished. U.S. programs and funding also support community organizations to provide shelter, healthcare, counseling, life-skills and entrepreneurship training, and job placement to over 3,000 trafficking survivors.
Ambassador Miller, 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.
