DHAKA // Bangladesh is moving to set up seven special courts across the country to try people smugglers charged with trafficking desperate migrants to South East Asia.
Law and justice minister Anisul Huq said on Thursday a court would be established in each of the country’s provinces.
“There will be seven tribunals to try traffickers,” Mr Huq said, without giving a timeline for operations to begin.
The move comes after prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday called the country’s economic migrants “mentally sick” for fleeing in search of jobs, and accusing them of hurting the country’s image.
Ms Hasina called on authorities to halt the flow of migrants and take action against human traffickers.
Bangladesh’s police and border forces have launched a crackdown on the smugglers in recent weeks after the discovery of mass graves of migrants in Thailand.
Authorities have shot dead at least five suspected traffickers and arrested more than 100 others.
Bangladesh enacted an anti-human trafficking law in 2012 which stipulates the death penalty for the worst offenders.
* Agence France-Presse
