Shelter for abused and ex-slave children, Bangladesh

Shelter for abused and ex-slave children, Bangladesh

The kidnapping of women and children to sell them as slaves is not uncommon in Bangladesh. Sometimes the children just dissappear, sometimes the parents or young women are taken in by the stories of the intermediates and go voluntarily to another country where they are promised nice jobs and better lives only to end up as prisoner/slave in the direst circumstances.

Especially in the case of children it is often very difficult to find them and get them back. And the ones that are found can not always return to their families immediately. The children that were sold at a very young age sometimes can't remember their own names or their family name. The girls that were forced to work as prostitutes are sometimes not wanted back by their families, for fear of social stigmatisation. The extremely traumatised will need a lot of time and care to learn to cope with a life of their own at all.

The Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA) is one of the leading human rights organisations in Bangladesh. It works to combat all forms of violence against women and children.One of the main activities is combating trafficking in women and children by working on prevention, protection, repatriation, rehabilitation and legal support.