Human trafficking has spread slavery to every continent and most countries. It rivals the drugs and illegal arms trade as one of the most profitable forms of illegal activity. Its high profit, low penalty nature makes it attractive to small criminal rings and large-scale organised crime, forcing a growing number of people into slavery around the world.

Trafficking involves transporting people away from the communities in which they live, by the threat or use of violence, deception, or coercion so they can be exploited as forced or enslaved workers for sex or labour. When children are trafficked, no violence, deception or coercion needs to be involved, it is merely the act of transporting them into exploitative work which constitutes trafficking.

It affects a wide range of people, for example, in West Africa young children are forced to work in markets or as domestics, women from eastern Europe are trafficked into western Europe's sex industry, and Brazilian men are sent to isolated estates in Amazonia.

Although there are examples where people know the work they will be doing, none is aware of the conditions in which they will be kept. Or that they will be forced to work long hours, will be denied their freedom, and in many cases, will not be paid.

Because of its hidden nature, reliable statistics are hard to come by. A recent United States Government report estimates between 700,000 and two million women and children are trafficked across borders each year. This figure does not include those who are trafficked within a country, nor men who are trafficked.

Primarily it is poor countries and poor areas that supply the rich. Poverty lies at the root of this problem and in order for it to be ended, the conditions which make it flourish need to be addressed. Laws specific to this abuse also need to be developed and implemented. In many countries, including the UK, there are no laws which prohibit trafficking. Instead, the victims are treated as illegal immigrants and imprisoned or deported. The traffickers, however, often go free.

Trafficking in Bangladesh

Tens of thousands of women and children are trafficked from Bangladesh each year. One of the poorest countries in the world, poverty provides traffickers with people who have no alternatives for survival. They trust the offers of work or marriage abroad, which promise security but instead lead to slavery.

They are sent to India, Pakistan and countries in the Middle East. They are forced into marriage, domestic work, factory labour, and prostitution, often as bonded labour. Every month an estimated 200 to 400 Bangladeshi women and children are trafficked to Pakistan; an estimated 10-15,000 are trafficked to India annually. Large numbers of boys, as young as four, are abducted or their parents are tricked into sending them to the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf States to be camel jockeys.

One of the ways traffickers lure girls into work is through marriage. They offer parents who are too poor to give their daughter a dowry, a dowry-free marriage. In this way, many are forced into prostitution, factory work, and domestic labour.

In the case of Shirin (not her real name), now 25, she was first trafficked when she was about 10 years old. She was married to a 30-year-old Indian man who did not demand a dowry. He took her to India and forced her into prostitution. When she refused she was beaten. She managed to escape and found her way home. When she was 14, she was married again. Her husband turned out to be a trafficker. She was taken to India and forced to work in a cigarette factory. She lived in his house and her mother-in-law, who ran a brothel, forced her to be a prostitute. After six months she escaped and managed to return home. She now lives with her parents who are too poor to support her and she is seen as a burden. Because of her having been a prostitute she is seen as having shamed her family. ACD is giving her training and a loan to enable her to start a small business and protect her from further trafficking.

It is not uncommon for people to be trafficked more than once. The economic conditions which led them to be trafficked in the first place, persist. The problem is compounded by the shame that prostitution and rape bring on the family, making it particularly difficult for many to report the full extent of their experiences.

But the State also treats them as criminals. When a brothel is raided or girls are picked up by the police, they are taken into "safe custody". Because there are no government-run shelters those trafficked are put in prisons with criminals. This further traumatises them and many are abused by prisoners, guards and police.

Relevant laws against trafficking:
· In March 2001, Bangladesh ratified the International Labour Organization Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour No.182. Under this Convention, the government agrees to protect children from working in conditions that damage their physical and psychological well-being. The trafficking of children and the work into which they are being sent contravenes this Convention.
· Under Bangladesh's Suppression of Violence Against Women and Children Act (2000) trafficking of women and children is illegal. Harsh penalties are prescribed for traffickers. However, this law is frequently not implemented and fails to safeguard the rights of people who have been trafficked.
· Bangladesh has not signed the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime (2000) which calls for the prevention, suppression and punishment for trafficking in people.