These rescued women and children, ferried back to Bangladesh at the intervention of the Bangladeshi government and human rights organizations, were among the luckier victims of a heinous trade that has claimed untold numbers, and continues to do so. There are no exact figures on how many women and children have been trafficked from Bangladesh to other countries, but a report last month by the Center for Women and Children's Study said more than 200,000 Bangladeshi women were trafficked from 1990 to 1997, with 6,000 children trafficked, abducted or reported missing during that time. International crime syndicates are believed to be behind this trade in human misery, operating through paid agents in the countries concerned. In some cases they effectively buy children from their poor parents for meager sums by offering the hope of employing them in an affluent second country. The most widely used technique to recruit women is also the hope of a better job abroad, or sometimes the promise of marriage.
Traders even charge their unwitting victims money to make their promised deals seem more credible.
Analysts say that unless immediate measures are taken to address these economic reasons which make most victims easy prey for traffickers, there will be little hope of ending this appalling trade. But since the improvement of socioeconomic conditions in a resource-poor country like Bangladesh cannot be achieved overnight, steps toward checking this trade have tended to be temporary and gradual. Several reports over the years have revealed that the traffickers use 20 main points in 16 western districts of Bangladesh near the Indian border to run their trade. Children are often used for sadistic practices such as camel jockeys in desert races, as well as in sex shops. They are also used for begging or as raw material for international human organ traders who deal in kidneys, eyes, or other body organs.