They also called for raising awareness in the grassroots level and bringing about socio-economic changes to combat the growing menace.

Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers' Association (BNWLA) organised the regional workshop on 'Prosecution of women and child traffickers' at the Brac Centre Inn at Mohakhali, with Attorney General AF Hassan Ariff as chief guest.

The attorney general suggested involving the local government representatives in the fight against trafficking in women and children.

Carol Horning, an USAID official, Advocate Salma Ali, executive director of BNWLA, and representatives from India and Pakistan also spoke in the opening session of the workshop, presided over by Advocate Sigma Huda, president of BNWLA.

Experts presented five papers in different sessions, followed by open discussions.

The papers are 'Cross-border Human Trafficking: South Asia Perspective', 'Trafficking: Safe Migration', 'Trafficking: Rescue, Repatriation, Care and Employment Perspective', 'Trafficking: Role of Lawyers and Law Enforcing Agencies in Judiciary System' and 'SAARC Convention on Combating Trafficking: Present Status and Future Prospect'.

The speakers said each regional country has laws regarding trafficking but these could not be enforced properly due to indifferent attitude of political leaders, law enforcers, lawyers and the authorities.

Activists and lawyers said lack of initiative by the law enforcing agencies, inadequate knowledge of the lawyers, and lack of coordination among the agencies concerned were the major obstacles to curbing the crime.

They recommended stepping up cooperation among the neighbouring countries, proper monitoring of the migrants, developing independent investigation system and forming watchdog committees to check trafficking.

Around 20,000 people are trafficked from Bangladesh to India, Pakistan and Middle East countries a year, says USAID sources.