I wake up early in the morning, take a shower and put myself on display for the customers โ she smiles softly โ. They like me and are happy to come into my room. Tompa says she's nearly 22 years old, but her face and mannerism betray a younger appearance. Tompa is young and beautiful, qualities that make her earn up to 1, taka a little over 10 dollars with a single client. Opened during the colonial era, it's more than a century old. The little world made of modest homes and shops that live off the revenue generated by the brothel lies between small streets filled with garbage, which animals sift through.
Young women dressed in coloured saris try to convince clients to come into their rooms as they walk around smoking or wait their turn, drink in hand. Read more: Made in Bangladesh. Two four-storey buildings with dirty yellow walls dotted with small barred windows emerge from the sea of shacks, very similar to a prison. I have to give most of my earnings to my madame.
Her stories on the methods employed by mesdames โ the term used to describe the people, many older ex-prostitutes, exploiting the women โ are terribly ordinary. This is the context in which traffickers operate, alluring young women with the hope of a job and a better life. The victims are sold by their partners or families for little money, or in other cases are kidnapped, drugged and made to disappear.
There are no certain figures on the number of victims but many, especially women, are sent to Gulf countries as well as the Middle East in general and Malaysia, others to the Indian state of West Bengal, whilst the remainder are kept inside the country. Bangladesh has instituted harsher penalties against traffickers , introducing the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act in Notwithstanding the establishment of special courts, results have been modest.
