The Flesh Trade
The girls had the harrowing tale to relate-driven by poverty, insecurity and a sense of desperation, they put themselves in the hands of men who promised them jobs and a better life in Pakistan or the Gulf.
The arrival of a routine flight from Pakistan at the Dhaka International Airport last month generated a lot more excitement than usual. As a dazed group of young girls got off the plane, women's organisations were up in arms to protest against yet another manifestation of a phenomenon that is emerging as a serious problem in Bangladesh trafficking in girls.
All the six girls who had arrived that day from Pakistan had spent some time-ranging from eight months to seven years-at Darul Aman, a camp in Karachi where they had been accommodated after being rescued from their exploiters. The girls had the same harrowing tale to relate-driven by poverty, insecurity and a sense of desperation, they put themselves in the hands of men who promised them jobs and a better life in Pakistan or the Gulf.
Over the past three years, such cases of trafficking have increased alarmingly. From the district of Chittagong alone, at least 200 girls have been lured away. Situated near the Bangladesh-Burma border, this district has become the nerve centre of the flesh racket. Apart from the local girls, the young nomadic Burmese-Rohingya Muslim girls who cross the borders also become the victims of the traffickers.
by in Dhaka