Human smuggling from the Bangladesh-Myanmar borderland cannot be effectively tackled by short-term quick-fixes. For a sustainable solution, both Bangladesh and Myanmar have to take effective action against human trafficking through building their institutional capacity and addressing the socio-economic causes behind human smuggling.

With more than two dozen human smuggling syndicates active in the coastal region of Bangladesh and Myanmar bringing boat people to Southeast Asia, human smuggling will remain a key challenge for region. In recent times, Thailand has taken a tough stance against human smuggling and trafficking in persons, but the response from Bangladesh and Myanmar remains inadequate and without a long-term strategy.

Unless Bangladesh and Myanmar take an effective stance against human smuggling, such problems will persist and may even escalate. For a sustainable solution, both the countries should consider a three pronged strategy: firstly to scale up institutional capacity to tackle human smuggling’ secondly, to raise social awareness through the mass media; and thirdly to address their respective socio-economic problems that is marginalising a vulnerable population.

… Iftekharul Bashar is an Associate Research Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.