Bangla boy toils to cut red tape, take home trafficked sister from shelter
Times of India | 24 April 2024
Kolkata: A youth from Chittagong in Bangladesh has been struggling to take home his 16-year-old sister, who was rescued from traffickers in Howrah and sent to a shelter home in Liluah in Dec last year, but red tape, delay at some level and financial constraints have been proving big hurdles. He has now appealed to Nabanna and the Union home department to intervene and let his sister return home.
The 21-year-old youth arrived in the city this weekend to find out that the govt clearances, which were supposed to have come through by now, had not happened, delaying their reunion.The shelter home was supposed to send documents to the ministry of home affairs and ministry of external affairs for the girl’s repatriation to Bangladesh, but the clearances have reportedly not yet come through. The youth is now faced with the ordeal of shutting between India and Bangladesh govt offices.
According to the youth, his sister, who was in Class IX, had left home on Dec 3 last year. “She was lured with the promise of taking her to a person, she had always wanted to meet. She was put on a train and brought to Kolkata. My sister had never before set foot outside our locality in rural Chittagong, not even the town, let aside Dhaka,” said the brother. “She realized she was in India, when she heard people speaking in a different dialect. Five persons put her on a bus. Near Belur, she raised an alarm and people there rushed to her rescue. Though three of the accused fled, Howrah Police arrested two. This was on Dec 6. Two days later, I received a call from the shelter home, saying they could release her to a guardian.”
Him being his family’s sole bread-winner, it took him a while to arrange for finances, ready his and his sister’s papers and get permission from his employer. “In Kolkata, I went to the Sealdah GRP, who connected me with NGO Shakti Vahini. With NGO members, I went to the Liluah home. There, they initially said only parents were allowed, but subsequently, let me in for a few minutes. My sister kept crying,” the youth told TOI. “The shelter home officials said they had forwarded the papers to the departments concerned for her repatriation.”
Advocate Gargi Sarkar, who works on the behalf of the NGO, said they approached the Bangladesh Deputy-High Commission on Tuesday. The home and foreign ministries of the two countries would issue clearances and so, girl’s release would take some time, Sarkar said. “Apart from social stigma and discrimination, cross-border trafficking victims hardly get legal support and are not told about their rights, making it difficult for them to seek justice. It needs a coordinated effort between govts, NGOs and international organizations to provide support to victims,” said Krishna Halder, spokesperson for Shakti Vahini.