Bangladesh launches shame campaign against alleged traffickers

Rights activists criticise the campaign, saying families are being vilified

DHAKA: Bangladesh border guards are marking the homes of suspected drug and human traffickers in a public shaming campaign as part of a bid to tackle a sharp rise in crime, officials said on Thursday.

The impoverished South Asian nation has been battling a surge in the trafficking of cheap methamphetamine pills called yaba from neighbouring Myanmar, and prescription drugs and alcohol from India.

Human trafficking has also increased, with smugglers enticing Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh camps to take boat journeys to other countries.

Officials have been writing slogans such as "this is a house of a drug trafficker" in red paint on some dwellings in the border districts of Brahmanbaria and Joypurhat, popular routes for criminals.

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"We have done this as part of our social campaign to discourage others from committing such crimes," Border Guard Bangladesh regional commander Lieutenant Colonel Golam Kabir told AFP.

Kabir said accused were repeatedly committing the same crimes "despite being arrested multiple times", as they keep getting bail.

A local villager in Brahmanbaria, Mohammad Ali, welcomed the move and told AFP that "we hope they will think about their children's futures".

But rights activists criticised the campaign, saying entire families were being "vilified".

Bangladesh shares a 4,200-kilometre (2,600-mile) land border with India and a 273-kilometre (170-mile) border with Myanmar.

A large part of the border is poorly policed, allowing criminals to smuggle humans, drugs and cattle.

Authorities have also shut down dozens of travel agencies in recent months over charges they are used as fronts for human trafficking.