HUMAN TRAFFICKING

INTER STATE AND INTER AGENCY CO-ORDINATION DURING RESCUE OPERATION

A PRESENTATION BY

NODAL OFFICER AHT WEST BENGAL

TRAFFICKING IS DISPLACEMENT OF ONE HUMAN BEING FROM HIS NATIVE PLACE BY USE OF

WHAT IS TRAFFICKING?

FORCE OR UNDER FALSE PROMISE OR ENTICEMENT WITH INTENTION OF EXPLOITATION. THE EXPLOITATION MAY BE IN FORM OF : FORCED PROSTITUTION, SLAVERY, DOMESTIC SERVITUDE, FORCED BEGGING, ILLEGAL ORGAN REMOVAL …………..

IN 2000 UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME WAS SIGNED IN PALERMO, ITALY. THE CONVENTION WAS SUPPLEMENTED BY PALERMO PROTOCOL………THE PROTOCOL TO PREVENT, SUPPRESS AND PUNISH TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS, SPECIALLY WOMEN AND CHILDREN.

A BATTLE TO BE FOUGHT GLOBALLY

A co-ordinated approach The trail of a human trafficking case spans across more than one State

and involves following layers of Operators:

1) RECRUITERS

2) TRANSPORTER

3) HARBOURER

4) SELLER

5) BUYER

6) USER

7) FINANCER

To burst the chain completely a strong inter-state co-ordination is needed, not only during rescue operation, but also during subsequent phases of investigation and trial.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING: THE WEST BENGAL SCENERIO

Due to its geographical positioning, West Bengal a source, transit point and a destination for human trafficking at the same time, hence operational zone of all 7 operators mentioned in earlier slide.

In our state an integrated approach is followed where AHTU,MPB,SJPU all work under common supervision of POWC.

CID, West Bengal happens to be the nodal agency which keeps contact with Commissionerates /Districts and also co-ordinates with Hon’ble/Ld. Courts and Ld. Commissions and also other States.

Our State acts as a source for the following states mainly- Maharashtra. Delhi. UP. Bihar Odisha

International Issues

WB Shares International Border with

1. Bangladesh

2. Nepal

3. Bhutan

WB used as transit and destination for the children trafficked on either side of international border.

Meeting between AHTU Task Forces of India and Bangladesh at Dhaka

On 17th August 2015 the AHTU Task Forces of India and Bangladesh met at Dhaka and discussed on various issues relating to RRRI of victims of trafficking. This apart various operational aspects were also discussed which may help in preventing and detecting human trafficking across the Indo-Bangladesh border.

Fast Repatriation of Cross Border Trafficked Victims

The issue was discussed at length in the 5th Task force meeting and following suggestions were put forward from our end:

As per data at hand, 256 children are presently residing in various shelter homes of West Bengal. As per their version they all were trafficked to India from Bangladesh, and in majority of the cases repatriation in pending due to want of Nationality Verification. The list was shared with officials of Bangladesh.

It is suggested that once nationality of the victim is established, exact address verification need not be made, rather she/he to be handed over to the Embassy concerned, this may prevent un necessary harassment on foreign victims languishing in Shelter homes of another country.

Help of NGOs working across the border may also be sought to have the process expedited.

Inter State and Inter Agency Coordination

MOU with Maharashtra in 2014 to promote co-ordination in all matters including rescue of victims of trafficking.

WhatsApp group among Nodal officers of various states.

Support being extended by nodal officers of other states for investigation and rescue of trafficking cases

Visit of composite Teams of Police and Social Welfare Dept. to other states CCIs to verify rescued children for reintegration.

National Portal a great platform for information on missing and rescued children facilitating reintegration.

Integrating a found child to his family: CID, West Bengal initiative

• FOUND CHILD is a missing child who is in a CCI and whose family/guardians are being searched for . National Portal for missing children designed by NIC provides an opportunity to search for missing children of a particular State in all CCIs of the country. CID, West Bengal with support from NIC has extracted list from the portal for all child belonging to WB but in CCIs of other States. Similarly they prepared a list of all outside State/UT children in CCIs of WB.

Challenges Partial Data Entry (Photo, Address, Family Phone numbers etc. of

missing and rescued children not entered at times despite availability) Language Barrier between rescued child and CCI Lack of data updation facility with CCI and others Lack of trained data entry personnel in PS, CCI etc. Role of police in reintegration not clear. Lack of messaging platform integrated with the portal for better inter-

agency coordination.

Case study From the MCTP portal, it was learnt that one Amit Das (14 yrs){name

altered} was kept in a CCI of Katni, Madhya Pradesh. The boy was contacted through Superintendent of the CCI. The boy

informed that he left his residence on 04.08.15. and was rescued by Madhya Pradesh Police and was kept at “Shri Shankar Saraswati Shiksha Samiti, Katni”.

His residence is at Uttar Ramnagar, PS – Ayushgram, Dist – Burdwan, his mother’s name is Suchita Mallik.

Linguistic barrier came in the way of integration. Special initiatives taken from CID, and the residence of the boy was

identified. Mother of the boy informed that she was eager to see her son back. The CWC Katni, MP was requested to send the boy at CWC Burdwan. Accordingly the boy was produced before CWC Burdwan on

08/09/2015. CWC Burdwan handed over the boy to his mother in presence of

officers of CID WB.

A Family united by our co-ordinated efforts

Experience at Orissa As per MCTP 153 children of WB were shown to be staying at a

Child Care Home in Puri.

A team CID ,WB along with a member of Social Welfare Deptt. proceeded to Puri for physical verification of the children.

During physical verification it was found that all children as mentioned in the portal were reintegrated to their respective families long back but their status in the portal are not updated.

During enquiry it was reveled that due to technical problem of the portal they could not upload the information of restoration. As a results all children are shown to be staying at the CCI.

Subsequently, this was brought to the notice of the developers for doing the needful from their end.

Thank you