A small boat drifts on the Mediterranean, crammed with more than a hundred people, many of them young Bangladeshis who set out from the Libyan coast hoping to reach Europe. The scene has repeated year after year: while some reach Italy or Greece, others drown. In March, at least 18 Bangladeshis died on the sea route from Libya to Greece — 12 of them from Sunamganj district.
The deaths reflect a broader surge in irregular migration, with UN refugee agency UNHCR reporting that 4,249 Bangladeshis reached Italy illegally during the first six months of 2026, while another 3,608 crossed by sea from Libya to Greece.
Behind the journeys lies a well-organised network of human trafficking syndicates. The Global Organized Crime Index in 2025 identified human trafficking as Bangladesh’s largest cross-border crime. Enticed by recruiters’ promises and taking advantage of weak law enforcement, migrants continue to embark on the voyage. Cases filed under anti-trafficking legislation rarely lead to severe sentences, leaving ringleaders at large, according to officials and experts who report little measurable progress in curbing the crime.
The crisis is also eroding mobility for ordinary citizens. In the latest Henley & Partners index released last week, the Bangladeshi passport fell to joint rank with North Korea, granting visa-free access to just 35 destinations. A year earlier, Bangladeshi passport holders could travel to 37 countries without obtaining a visa in advance or by using visa-free access. Migration experts attribute the decline directly to illicit networks, noting that trafficking has triggered tighter visa restrictions, curtailed overseas employment opportunities and narrowed the path for international students.
The fallout is restricting overseas employment opportunities for Bangladeshis, as several host nations tighten visa quotas, limit labour market entry, and heighten scrutiny of student and tourist visa applications.
After a wave of visitors entered Vietnam on tourist visas in recent years and vanished into the informal workforce, authorities in Hanoi responded by suspending all visa issuance for Bangladeshi nationals in January last year.
Data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix show 7,969 Bangladeshis reached Europe by land or sea up to July 27 this year. The influx follows a sharp upward trajectory recorded in the IOM’s Bangladesh Migration Snapshot, which documented 24,318 irregular entries in 2025 — up from 15,304 in 2024, 13,773 in 2023, 16,487 in 2022, 7,955 in 2021 and 4,510 in 2020. The majority of Bangladeshis taking irregular routes to Europe were victims of human trafficking.
According to the EU border agency Frontex, Bangladeshis remain the largest nationality using the Central Mediterranean route from Libya. Roughly 110,000 Bangladeshis entered Europe irregularly along the route between 2009 and June 2026, and they also accounted for the largest group arriving in Greece by sea without valid documents during 2026.
Investigations reveal the trafficking pipeline typically begins at home through trusted local contacts — relatives, acquaintances or brokers — complemented by aggressive social media campaigns promising lucrative European jobs and guaranteed passage.
For Md Masum Molla from Gazipur, the lure proved disastrous. Seeking to improve his family’s finances, Molla paid an agency in 2024 to send him to Italy. Instead, brokers routed him through Dubai and Egypt to Libya, where he was sold to a local criminal gang. His family paid nearly BDT 4 million in ransom to secure his release. A trafficking case he subsequently filed at Dhaka’s Gulshan police station is still ongoing.
Bangladesh enacted its anti-trafficking law in 2012, but convictions have remained negligible. A replacement statute passed in 2026 titled the “Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling (Prevention and Suppression) Act” introduced explicit offences covering migrant smuggling while retaining maximum penalties of life imprisonment or death sentence for trafficking offences.
Yet enforcement has lagged behind legislation. Home ministry figures show that between 2019 and May 2026, law enforcement agencies charged 25,554 individuals with trafficking offences, resulting in just 200 convictions — 30 of which carried life sentences.
The overall conviction rate over the seven-year period stands below 1 percent. Courts convicted 25 of 2,916 accused in 2019, followed by a single conviction among 2,199 defendants in 2020. No convictions were recorded against 2,889 accused in 2021 or 2,700 in 2022. Convictions picked up slightly to 71 out of 3,513 accused in 2023, 60 out of 4,639 in 2024 and 28 out of 4,696 in 2025. As of May 2026, courts have convicted 15 of 2,002 defendants.
Meanwhile, the judicial backlog continues to mount. Home ministry data indicate that 1,128 new trafficking cases were recorded in 2025 alone. By May 2026, pending cases reached 5,284, with 3,306 awaiting trial and another 1,978 still under investigation by police and the Criminal Investigation Department.
The law enforcement caseload for human trafficking rose steadily over the first five months of 2026, with 700 new cases filed between January and May — peaking at 130 in April and 123 in May — while just 44 cases were resolved. Convictions remain rare, with courts handing down only a handful of exemplary sentences in 2025 or this year.
Most migrants risking the journey to Europe are aged between 25 and 40, according to BRAC’s Migration Programme. Young men from districts such as Madaripur, Shariatpur, Sylhet and Sunamganj are particularly vulnerable to recruitment by traffickers using Facebook groups and social media as primary enticements. Victims returning home after facing fraud or torture frequently seek legal recourse, but ringleaders remain beyond reach.
Research indicates that the vast majority of Bangladeshis attempting to reach Italy or Greece originate from 11 districts: Madaripur, Shariatpur, Faridpur, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Habiganj, Munshiganj, Noakhali, Brahmanbaria, Kishoreganj and Cumilla. Routing analysis shows most travel from Dhaka via Egypt, Dubai or Turkey to Libya, where promises of employment fail to materialise. Seventy-five percent find no work and are instead held captive, with 93 percent confined in detention camps and 79 percent subjected to physical torture. Despite the abuses, the flow of Europe-bound migrants through Libya continues unabated.
Mohammad Saber, a resident of Kochubonia village in Teknaf’s Sabrang Union, described being abducted and trafficked by sea. “They bound my hands and feet, blindfolded me, and took me to a hilltop hideout in Shamalapur,” he said. “I was held for three days and tortured for ransom before being moved from the Marine Drive coast by small boat to a large trawler at sea. Around 300 people were crammed inside before we were taken through Myanmar and Thailand to Malaysia.”
Shariful Hasan, associate director of BRAC’s Migration Programme, believes legislation alone will not stem the trade without effective enforcement. “Curbing human trafficking and migrant smuggling requires more than legislation. The law must also be enforced effectively,” he said. “The main perpetrators must be brought to justice and their assets confiscated, and special tribunals must be established in trafficking-prone districts.”
Human trafficking reflects a systemic, global accountability failure rather than the shortcomings of a single government, according to Professor Tasneem Siddiqui, founder of the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit.
Siddiqui told Bonik Barta: “State-sponsored skills development and vocational training must be prioritised to curb the lure of irregular migration by opening legal avenues for overseas employment. Within the judicial pipeline, the lack of witness protection in human trafficking cases, coupled with the absence of human trafficking and migration law from university curricula, means many lawyers are unable to file cases properly, undermining prosecutions.”
“Given the transnational nature of trafficking networks, domestic law enforcement alone can’t dismantle them. The response must also involve the judiciary, universities, civil society and international partners,” she added.
The government is stepping up efforts to halt human trafficking and irregular migration entirely, State Minister for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Md Nurul Haque told Bonik Barta.
“Those running social media advertisements promising entry to Europe are frauds. The government is taking an extremely tough line, and any recruitment advertisement posted without ministry authorisation is illegal,” Haque said, adding that mobile courts led by executive magistrates from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) would deploy to target these networks, with unaccredited agencies facing immediate legal action and summary penalties.
The state minister further noted that the government plans to prioritise areas where large numbers of people risk travelling abroad through irregular channels, using local elected representatives and government agencies to run extensive public awareness campaigns.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed Islam told Bonik Barta that the administration maintains a policy of zero tolerance on human trafficking and is coordinating with destination countries to curb irregular migration.
She said: “The government has adopted an integrated strategy combining enforcement against trafficking networks, public awareness campaigns and expanded legal migration channels. Inter-ministerial coordination has been tightened, with the foreign, home and expatriates’ welfare ministries, the BMET and law enforcement agencies sharing intelligence to target trafficking rings.”
The most effective way to prevent human trafficking is to expand safe, regular and legal migration opportunities, build a skilled workforce, apply strict laws against trafficking rings and deepen international partnerships, Islam said, noting that the foreign ministry is working with relevant ministries, partner countries and international bodies to secure safe migration paths.