Outgoing US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl R Miller has said human trafficking is “modern slavery” which has no place anywhere in the world.

“Working with you to fight human trafficking is a priority of the U.S. Embassy,” he said while inaugurating a counter-human trafficking workshop for tribunal judges in Dhaka together with Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq on Wednesday.

The event was organized by the Fight Slavery and Trafficking In-Persons (FSTIP) project and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Strong collaboration between the United States and Bangladesh led to the establishment of seven special tribunals to prosecute trafficking-in-persons (TIP) and the implementation of the five-year National Plan of Action to combat human trafficking.

Ambassador Miller highlighted U. S. support for Bangladesh’s counter-human trafficking programmes and said this workshop reaffirms their commitment to partner with the Government of Bangladesh, civil society, the private sector, and trafficking survivors to end trafficking in persons.

Despite the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act of 2012, American and Bangladeshi law enforcement and judicial partners recognize prosecution and conviction rates for human trafficking can be improved.

USAID’s $10 million FSTIP project is helping Bangladesh more effectively prosecute and convict human traffickers though training like this week’s workshop for justice sector officers, prosecutors, and judges.

Bangladesh’s attainment of Tier 2 status for the last two consecutive years in the U.S. Department of State’s TIP Report demonstrates the growing success of the U.S./Bangladesh partnership combatting human trafficking.

With U.S. support, the Government of Bangladesh has strengthened the justice sector’s ability to prosecute trafficking offenders, said the US Embassy in Dhaka on Wednesday.

In the past five years, USAID has trained 569 judges and more than 1,000 police, public prosecutors, and lawyers on human trafficking issues so trafficking perpetrators can be caught, tried, and punished.

U.S. programmes and funding also support community organizations to provide shelter, healthcare, counseling, life-skills and entrepreneurship training, and job placement to over 3,000 trafficking survivors.

Md. Golam Sarwar, Secretary, Law and Justice Division, Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs; Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Director General, Judicial Administration Training Institute (JATI); Md. Golam Kibria, Senior District and Sessions Judge, Director of Training, JATI, also spoke at the event.