In a dark room in a two-story building in a residential neighborhood on the outskirts of Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, Bithi helps her daughter with her homework. “I want him to go to school and work hard. I don’t want him to go through the same experience as me,” said the 26-year-old woman, whose last name was not disclosed for security reasons. Bithi was a victim of trafficking between December 2023 and April 2024. Her kidnappers exploited her in two brothels in Abu Dhabi, she was freed thanks to the intermediation of the Bangladeshi NGO Anirban and is now asking for justice.
In Bangladesh, second According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), of the almost one million Bangladeshis who emigrate abroad every year, often due to the country’s economic difficulties, a portion falls into the hands of traffickers and is the victim of forced labor and marriages, sexual exploitation and other forms of modern slavery. The dismantling of USAID, the US cooperation agency, now endangers the support programs for survivors of trafficking, which US cooperation has implemented over the last two decades.
Burdened by the debts she and her husband had incurred, Bithi decided to travel to Abu Dhabi after meeting a woman who convinced her that she could make a better living there by working as a waitress in a restaurant. “He told me I could win BDT 50,000 or takas Bangladesh (around 350 euros) per month. I had mixed feelings, but I also knew that I had a young daughter and that it was the only way to pay off the debts,” she explains.
The woman, after speaking with her husband Amid, who worked as a driver, decided to pay around 120 thousand BDT (around 840 euros) to the woman who suggested this option and who took care of all the travel arrangements. Bithi packed her bags in December 2023 and, as soon as she landed, she realized she had been sold to two Bangladeshi men who ran a brothel in the Emirates.
“My passport was confiscated. Three other women suffered the same fate and we ended up in a house where there were between 40 and 50 other women,” Bithi recalls. Covered in jewels and wearing the traditional red Bangladeshi sari, Bithi was forced to dance in a bar and entertain men in exchange for money. “I cried every day. During the first two months I often refused to go to the bar, but that meant they didn’t pay me. So in the end I decided to go back to dancing. But once I had a nervous breakdown and burst into tears,” she says.
I cried every day. During the first two months I refused to go to the bar several times, but this meant I didn’t get paid. So I finally decided to come back and dance
Bithi, survivor of trafficking
Kidnapped and extorted
Meanwhile, in Bangladesh, Bithi’s husband was aware of his wife’s situation. “Sometimes he would call me from the bathroom or secretly from the brothel owners, crying and telling me the things they asked him to do,” says Amid, who adds that he asked local NGOs for help and contacted the Bangladesh Immigration and Immigration Police.
But the couple lost contact when Bithi was sold to another brothel in Abu Dhabi. “The room I stayed in for more than six months was constantly monitored by cameras. We were not allowed to talk to our families or even to each other,” says Bithi. “They never paid me in cash. The customers gave all the money to the brothel owner or middlemen,” he continued.
Her husband was extorted by one of the brothel owners. He was told that if he paid around BDT 5,000 (35 euros), his wife would be released and he would go into further debt to raise the money. But despite the payment, the traffickers did not release Bithi. “I was devastated. I went to Abu Dhabi to help my family financially and all I did was add to our debt,” Bithi says.
Eventually, her husband contacted Anirban, who petitioned the ministry in charge of expatriates and it, in turn, asked the Bangladeshi embassy in the UAE to take steps for her rescue and repatriation. With the help of the local police, Bithi was freed. Although he managed to return with his family to Dhaka in April 2024, Bangladeshi authorities have yet to take effective measures against his traffickers, warns Anirban, who has rescued more than 30,000 survivors since 2011.
“Identifying the traffickers was particularly difficult from the beginning. Even after returning to Bangladesh, when Bithi asked for legal help, the search was complicated due to the shortcomings of the legal system and the financial constraints faced by the victim herself,” says Almin Noyon, head of Anirban.
In this already complicated context, the end of USAID, the US cooperation agency, has reduced assistance services for victims of trafficking and has also prevented traffickers from being held accountable to justice.
Between 2001 and 2020, USAID launched Counter Trafficking in Persons Programs (CTIP) and invested $341 million to support initiatives in all regions of the world. Asia received practically 50% of these resources. But a recent investigation published by The Guardian newspaper concluded that “withdrawing funding could obscure decades of progress in the fight against sexual slavery, forced labor and child sexual exploitation.”
We are trying to find a way to deal with the situation, the managers are giving up part of their salary
Marina Sultana, RMMRU Program Director
Abruptly interrupted backgrounds
Anirban does not receive direct funding from USAID, but benefits from technical support from Winrock International, another NGO that receives funding from the United States. “Due to USAID cuts, local organizations working to prevent human trafficking have faced severe financial constraints. This has impacted survivor support services and advocacy efforts to combat human trafficking,” says Anirban’s Noyon.
This is also the case for the Migration and Refugee Movement Research Unit (RMMRU), which focuses on the fight against human trafficking. Marina Sultana, program director, says that “RMMRU had obtained funding from USAID in 2024 for a three-year project.” “But (the funding) was unexpectedly stopped after seven or eight months. We had 15 employees working on the project and this sudden stoppage created great uncertainty within the team,” he says.
And although the RMMRU currently receives British, Swiss and Italian financial aid, these funds are limited, according to Sultana. “We’re trying to find a way to deal with the situation, managers are giving up part of their salary. It’s a really difficult thing to deal with,” he explains. Despite the lack of funding, Anirban’s Noyon says it is still possible to find effective solutions to combat human trafficking. “The most urgent thing is to strengthen initiatives focused on survivors, ensuring their access to legal assistance, psychosocial support and safe reintegration,” he indicates. “The (Bangladesh) government should prioritize anti-trafficking policies and create special task forces to ensure coordination between law enforcement, the judiciary and civil society.”
Meanwhile, in a dark room on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bithi continues to wait. “I have received support from several NGOs and Anirban to rehabilitate me. But now what I want is to see my traffickers in prison. What all survivors of human trafficking need is justice,” he concludes.
