Bangladesh to constitute 7 tribunals to try human traffickers

Bangladesh will constitute seven special tribunals to try human traffickers who can be given a maximum of death penalty on conviction.
"We have decided to constitute the special courts to be called Human Trafficking Deterrence Tribunal," Law Minister Anisul Huq said.
Huq said the government decided to set up seven such special courts to effectively enforce the Human Trafficking Deterrence and Suppression Act which suggests the maximum death penalty for the human smugglers.
The minister, however, hinted that the courts would be set up at places away from the area where the crime has been committed.
"The victims might not get justice if the trials are held in the districts where the crime has been committed," Huq said.

Bangladesh authorities earlier launched a crackdown on human traffickers while several of them were reportedly killed in shootouts mostly in Cox's Bazar district on the coastline of Bay of Bengal, the route of illegal migration.

But the decision came as Bangladesh Prme Minister Sheikh Hasina earlier this week ordered tougher punitive actions against human traffickers.
The premier called the illegal migrants "mentally sick fortune-seekers" and added that they should be punished as well alongside middlemen who arrange their travel.
State minister for home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said security vigil around border area would be tightened with installation of border outposts by paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh and intensified surveillance on the sea by the Coast Guard.

According to reports thousands of people, economic migrants from Bangladesh and Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar, are thought to be stranded in boats destined to East Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, which earlier denied them entry on their territories.
UN earlier this week estimated that over 3,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants - or even more - could still be adrift in the Andaman Sea.