Bangladesh's slavery survivors struggle as coronavirus halts businesses

Collected
For trafficking survivors-turned-entrepreneurs in Bangladesh - from caterers to hairdressers - the coronavirus pandemic has threatened their fresh start and left many struggling to manage.

Starting a business or securing a job may offer a lifeline for ex-slaves because they make an effort to recover financially and mentally, the outbreak has taken Bangladesh’s economy to a halt and driven many victims to shut up shop and seek loans to survive.

Having been enslaved and tortured as a maid in Saudi Arabia, Dalia Akhter returned to Bangladesh in September and joined a food catering service that she helped run with other survivors.

The business enterprise started well but was forced to close the other day when Bangladesh - which has seen 51 cases and five deaths from COVID-19 - announced a nationwide shutdown until early April.

“I am not educated enough to have a job and the business enterprise was all that I had,” Akhter told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. “We earned nearly enough to meet our day to day needs.”

“I went through a lot of pain in Saudi and I thought this (business) would help me recover,” said Akhter, who broke her leg by jumping from her former employers’ third-floor home so that you can escape. “I have to start all over again now.”

EMERGENCY FUND ESTABLISHED
Three anti-slavery charities, which supply the almost all support to survivors with limited government help available, said several victims with businesses had asked for assistance.

Justice and Care - a charity that has helped victims open beauty parlors and get jobs in the garment industry - said it was setting up an emergency fund to greatly help more than 100 people.

“A number of them need groceries, some need money. Many of them have given birth, so they need medical support,” said Shauly Sultana, the charity’s senior program officer.

Shariful Islam, head of the migration department at aid group BRAC, said it turned out a challenge to offer services to returned migrants and slavery victims due to social distancing.

“We haven’t had the opportunity to bring them to our center and guide them like we used to as a result of the coronavirus,” said Islam, whose organization has helped trafficking survivors to open food businesses and purchase small cars so that you can run taxi services.

There is absolutely no official data but a large number of trafficking victims have returned home from India and Saudi Arabia recently, from women sold for sex to men found in construction work.

FEARS OVER RE-TRAFFICKING

The federal government announced on Sunday that it could provide food and school funding to the indegent, day laborers, roadside tea stall owners and other people who lead a hand-to-mouth existence.

Yet a one-off payment won't suffice for some slavery victims and they should get a long-term package of support, said Binoy Krishna Mallick, head of the charity Rights Jessore.

“The lack of support can bring about survivors looking for loans and leave them desperate,” he said. “This can lead to re-trafficking, after the impact of the coronavirus recedes.”

An official at the inside ministry said she had asked its partner agencies - like the United Nations’ migration agency (IOM) - to redirect funds from their existing anti-trafficking projects to aid survivors based on their needs.

“The situation of survivors is always delicate,” said Ferdousi Akhter, additional secretary at the ministry. “We have to take care of them if not they might be desperate ... they could be at risk of getting trafficked again.”

Khadija, a trafficking survivor who was simply sold to a brothel in India, is looking for a loan as she actually is unsure if she will ever be able to get her beauty salon business up and running again.

“Even if the restrictions are lifted, I don’t think persons should come to the parlor. They are too scared as a result of the virus,” said the 26-year-old, who declined to provide her full name for fear of reprisals. “I don’t understand how I'll continue.”
Source: https://www.reuters.com

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