UN GENEVA — Human Rights Council — 19 June–14 July 2023 — Visit to Bangladesh Report of the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, Siobhán Mullally A/HRC/53/28/Add.1

I. Intro­duc­tion

II.

1. The Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on traf­fick­ing in per­sons, espe­cial­ly women and chil­dren, Siobhán Mul­lal­ly, con­duct­ed an offi­cial vis­it to Bangladesh from 31 Octo­ber to 9 Novem­ber 2022 to assess the sit­u­a­tion with regard to traf­fick­ing in per­sons, espe­cial­ly women and chil­dren. The Spe­cial Rap­por­teur is grate­ful to the Gov­ern­ment of Bangladesh for its will­ing­ness to facil­i­tate her vis­it and for its con­struc­tive dia­logue and engage­ment on human rights and human traf­fick­ing. In addi­tion to vis­it­ing Dha­ka, the Spe­cial Rap­por­teur also had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to vis­it Syl­het and Cox’s Bazar (includ­ing vis­its to gov­ern­ment-run refugee camps and a tran­sit cen­tre). She also vis­it­ed gov­ern­ment-run shel­ters for chil­dren and for women and girls, includ­ing vic­tims of trafficking.

2. The Spe­cial Rap­por­teur met with the Min­is­ter of Expa­tri­ates’ Wel­fare and Over­seas Employ­ment and staff of the Min­istry; the Attor­ney Gen­er­al; the Min­is­ter for For­eign Affairs; the Sec­re­tary of the Min­istry of Law, Jus­tice and Par­lia­men­tary Affairs; senior offi­cials of the Min­istry of Women and Chil­dren Affairs; the Direc­tor Gen­er­al of Social Wel­fare; the Direc­tor Gen­er­al of Bor­der Guards Bangladesh; the Direc­tor Gen­er­al of the Bangladesh Coast Guard; the Inspec­tor Gen­er­al of Pris­ons; offi­cials of the Min­istry of Home Affairs; offi­cials of the Crim­i­nal Inves­ti­ga­tion Divi­sion of the Bangladesh Police; offi­cials of the Nation­al Legal Aid Ser­vices Orga­ni­za­tion; offi­cials of the Armed Police Bat­tal­ion of the Bangladesh Police; rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Office of the Refugee Relief and Repa­tri­a­tion Com­mis­sion­er; rep­re­sen­ta­tives of camp admin­is­tra­tions and dis­trict counter-traf­fick­ing com­mit­tees; and mem­bers of the judi­cia­ry and pros­e­cu­tors. Dur­ing her vis­it, the Spe­cial Rap­por­teur met with Unit­ed Nations agen­cies and inter­na­tion­al non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions (NGOs), Embassy mis­sions and devel­op­ment partners.

3. The Spe­cial Rap­por­teur also met with lawyers and civ­il soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions assist­ing vic­tims of traf­fick­ing, includ­ing returned migrant work­ers, sex work­ers and vic­tims of traf­fick­ing for pur­pos­es of sex­u­al exploita­tion, child and forced mar­riage, forced labour and domes­tic servi­tude. The Spe­cial Rap­por­teur is par­tic­u­lar­ly grate­ful to the many survivors/victims of traf­fick­ing, who met with her dur­ing her vis­it and whose tes­ti­monies of seri­ous human rights vio­la­tions informed the analy­sis and rec­om­men­da­tions con­tained in the present report.

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