Ambassador Miller and Minister of Law Huq inaugurate a workshop by USAID’s Fight Slavery and Trafficking in Persons project for judges presiding over human trafficking tribunals.
Dhaka, January 12, 2022 – 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 highlighted U. S. support for Bangladesh’s counter-human trafficking programs. “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,” Ambassador Miller said.
“Human trafficking is modern slavery,” Ambassador Miller said. “It has no place in our world. Anywhere.”
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 though 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 U.S. Department of State’s TIP Report demonstrates the growing success of the U.S./Bangladesh partnership combatting human trafficking.
With U.S. support, the Government of Bangladesh has strengthened the justice sector’s ability to prosecute trafficking offenders. 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. 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.
###
