Request for Proposal (RFP)

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is looking for Consultant for the Assessment of Trafficking in Person (TiP) and Other forms of Irregular Migration in Bangladesh as per below Terms of Reference (ToR):

Project background   

Bangladesh is a major migrant-sending country, with most Bangladeshi migrants leaving to seek employment opportunities in countries as diverse as India and Malaysia and Libya, as well as European Union and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries. While many of these migrants, travel using regular migration channels, many others rely on people smugglers. Regardless of the modality of travel, Bangladeshi migrants are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking as well as the associated forms of exploitation and abuse. Aspirant migrants who want to access employment opportunities abroad are required either to pay labour brokers and recruitment agencies to benefit from regulated labour migration schemes or pay criminal syndicates to facilitate their illegal entry into countries for which they lack the appropriate documentation. Both regular and irregular migration from Bangladesh can cost thousands of dollars, which aspirant migrants generally finance by borrowing from family and friends, or from informal lenders, or by assuming a debt against future earnings. Preliminary IOM assessments suggest that Bangladeshi migrants pay some of the World’s highest labour migration costs – averaging as much as 27 months in wages for those migrating to some other Asian countries. Anecdotal evidence suggests that migrants often leverage family land as collateral to secure loans from informal lenders, which can then be calamitous for extended families whose livelihoods depend on subsistence agriculture. 

Given this migration imperative, Bangladeshi nationals migrating abroad are particularly vulnerable to human trafficking and the associated forms of exploitation and abuse, including commercial sexual exploitation, bonded and forced labour and forced and early marriage. But Bangladeshis are also vulnerable to exploitation within Bangladesh as well, women and children are often taken from their homes on false promises of a better life with good employment, or by using various other criminal acts and means by the traffickers who sell them to brothels. As described in the country report the problem is particularly pronounced in rural areas where people face survival challenges and are subjected to discriminatory socio-cultural practices. Bangladeshi children and adults are exploited in sex trafficking and forced labor, including domestic servitude and bonded labor, in which traffickers take advantage of an initial debt assumed by a worker as part of the employment terms. Traffickers further exploit children in forced labor in fisheries, aluminum and garment factories, and dry fish production. In some cases, traffickers force sex trafficking victims to become addicted to drugs and use drug addictions to keep them in sex trafficking and forced criminality. Bangladeshi children are vulnerable to forced labor in tanneries and forced begging as well. Child marriage, dowry practice and domestic violence are interrelated, and combination of these harmful practices make girls vulnerable to be trafficked. A practice known as sexual harassment and abuse in public spaces, child marriage and drop out from school both of boy and girl children pave the way to increase vulnerability of future generation. The trend of trafficking in persons from bordering districts has been reduced with initiatives undertaken by Bangladesh government and NGOs and victimization of persons of districts of distant areas has been increased. Further, rural women and girls are migrating to cities for work like Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna etc, and the traffickers are targeting these women and girls with allurement of better jobs abroad. Besides socio-economic issues, vulnerability factors of bordering districts lie in its geographical and historical aspects, acceptance of illegal migration and human smuggling.

Bangladesh also hosts in Cox’s Bazar more than a million Rohingya, an even more vulnerable population that have been rendered stateless by having to flee persecution in Myanmar. Without legal status in Bangladesh, Rohingya lack basic educational and livelihood opportunities in Bangladesh and therefore see few alternatives to irregular migration overland to India or across the Andaman Sea towards Malaysia.

In response to the risk of human trafficking, the Government of Bangladesh passed specific legislation in 2012 to criminalize trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling, and prepared a national action plan structured to better prevent trafficking in persons, protect victims of the trade, and prosecute its perpetrators. The Ministry of Home Affairs has been in the lead role of coordinating counter-trafficking activities. There are various committees and sub-committees working under the Ministry of Home Affairs for policy making including inter-ministerial representatives, NGOs and INGOs working on combating human trafficking in a concerted way. Moreover, other relevant ministries are also actively engaged in counter-trafficking activities and are extending their cooperation to the Ministry of Home Affairs in implementation of ‘The Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act, 2012’ in line with National Plan of Action. Different departments under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) like Bangladesh Police, Border Guard Bangladesh, Bangladesh Coast Guard, Rapid Action Battalion, Bangladesh Ansar/ Village Defence Party (VDP), National Security of Intelligence (NSI), Special Branch (SB) and Detective Branch (DB) of Police actively participating in Bangladesh Government’s collective effort on combating Trafficking in persons. Bangladesh participated in different regional, international and bilateral meetings on safe migration and human trafficking, migrant smuggling and related transnational crime for sharing and discussing government’s actions/ initiatives for combating trafficking in persons and transitional crimes with global representatives about wide range of issues of mutual interest including trafficking, transitional crimes and irregular movements for example Bali Process, Global Compact for Migration, Global Migration and Development Forum. Moreover, Bangladesh government is working in partnership with IOM, other UN bodies, non-governmental organizations, and other international agencies to combat human trafficking.

However, despite these efforts, there is no country wide assessment of trafficking trends and patterns in Bangladesh. Ministry of Home Affairs realizes the importance of accurate information and data in effective design and efficient targeting of counter trafficking initiatives, hence, requested IOM to support a country wide Trafficking in Person (TiP) assessment. 

IOM has been working with the Government of Bangladesh to combat trafficking in persons and the associated forms of exploitation since 2000. Among its activities to build the capacity of law enforcement agencies and provide information on safe migration, IOM has also carried out several human trafficking-related assessments to inform prevention activities under a regional project of IOM titled IOM X and to understand the dynamics of exploitation as relates to the Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar.  The IOM X project illustrates IOM’s capacity to engage in media- based advocacy work, lead partners and implement locally, utilizing a strong regional counter-trafficking advocacy technical support. The project mainstreams gender issues, prioritizing a gender sensitive approach to content creation and monitoring and evaluation. The Bangladesh campaign was heavily informed by consultations as to if and how aspirant female migrants could be included in the target audience. In addition to 12 Knowledge, Attitude and Practices surveys across the whole project, IOM X has also included a gender analysis of existing data to provide guidance to further project iterations. The project also demonstrates IOM’s technical capacity to tailor the intervention to the specific context, with tailored interventions and a focus on community led planning for each country where IOM X has been implemented.

In 2018, 101 Bangladeshi victims of trafficking were identified in Vanuatu. They were from 5 different districts namely Barishal (25), Munshiganj (1), Mymensingh (4), Narsingdi (1) and Tangail (70). This group used two different routes; Dhaka-Myanmar-Singapore-Fiji-Vanuatu by flights and Dhaka-Kolkata-Delhi-Singapore-Fiji-Vanuatu by bus, train and flights. They were promised to work as salesman, restaurants, hotel, business, office work, driving etc. but they did not get job or business as promised. They were abused, had their travel documents taken away, had wages withheld, were denied medical treatment, experienced long working hours, were confined in houses with restriction on movement with limited, and had access to low quality food. IOM provided assistance to 75 vulnerable Bangladeshi victims of trafficking out of 101 to return home from Vanuatu. The rest of the migrants are still in Vanuatu as witness for the trafficking case filed by the Government. 

The Community-Led Outreach on Safe Migration was a 16-month intervention supported by the European Union (EU) and IOM’s 'EU Readmission Capacity Building Facility (EURCAP) facility, aiming to build awareness around key themes on safe migration in 12 districts of Bangladesh. The intervention aimed to address the resilience and success of regular Bangladeshi migrants; the risks of, and alternatives to, irregular migration to Europe; and how to access regular mechanisms for migration. Potential Bangladeshi migrant’s information needs, preferred channels and current local materials were assessed through compilation of all previous safe migration awareness campaigns and documents implemented by IOM during the past years; A KAP study on safe migration administered under 600 potential and returned migrants in 12 districts of Bangladesh; Additionally, 6 infographics were developed and disseminated amongst key stakeholders. Respective infographics were amended and published on social media, as well as the IOM Bangladesh website (https://bangladesh.iom.int/information-products).

As a part of the project, Addressing Trafficking and Smuggling through Improved Border Management and Counter Trafficking Response in Bangladesh, IOM has been working with the Government of Bangladesh and Border management authorities to prevent trafficking in persons and its associated abuses by protecting victims, and facilitating investigations with more effective border management and law enforcement capacity and practices. For this purpose, and in response to a request from the Ministry of Home Affairs, IOM aims to conduct a national research assessment of trafficking in persons in all 64 districts in Bangladesh. 

Scope of Work of the Assessment:

The assessment will adopt in depth qualitative study (including some ethnographic methods) in 64 districts of Bangladesh to assess TiP and other irregular forms of migration. Further, the sensitive and confidential information around trafficking can be best captured by using some ethnographic methods such as participant observation. The assessment will involve informal detail interviews (IDIs), key informant’s interviews (KIIs), case studies methods, focus group discussion.  The work will involve engagement with relevant government officials at the district and sub district levels, elected representatives at the district, sub districts and union level, NGO’s/CSO’s working in the districts and transit homes/ shelter homes (both government/non-government) in the districts. Additionally, case study methods/IDIs will be used to interview victim of trafficking (VoTs) and other vulnerable returnees. If possible, the assessment will interview non-Bangladeshi victims of trafficking as well.   IOM will develop tools pertaining to the methods mentioned above and provide in depth training to the field work researchers of the service provider.

Research Questions

The research will focus on different key drivers, forms of exploitation, routes, patterns, trends and profiling of victims and exploiters, Specific questions could be:

  • What are the key drivers associated with Bangladesh as origin/transit/destination country? (Drivers)
  • How are people trafficked within, to and from Bangladesh? (Trends)
  • Who are the victims, and by what means are they trafficked? (Profile of Victims)
  • What forms of exploitation are common in Bangladesh (commercial sexual exploitation, other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, bonded labour, forced marriage, debt bondage, slavery, forced removal of organs), and in which economic sectors/industries? (Forms of Exploitation)
  • How are these forms of exploitation linked to migration, if at all?
  • How are these forms of exploitation distributed within Bangladesh – ie. in which districts is each form most prevalent? (Pattern)
  • To what extent is human trafficking a cross-border phenomenon? To which countries are Bangladeshi nationals being/most likely trafficked? (Destination countries)
  • By what modus operandi are Bangladeshi nationals trafficked abroad? Through which routes? (Routes)
  • To what extent are foreign nationals trafficked to Bangladesh? By which routes? To which districts? Into what forms of exploitation? (Pattern/Trend)
  • Who are the traffickers? Characteristics and traits of traffickers/ smugglers, roles of traffickers/ smugglers, and categorization of trafficking groups? (Profile)
  • What are the border management and law enforcement related gaps and challenges related to TIP/migrants smuggling/irregular migration?

Stages of the assessment

The assessment consists of following stages:

  • Conceptualization of the study (4 weeks)
  • Development of tools (2 weeks)
  • Piloting of tools (1 week)
  • Data collection (8 weeks)
  • Analysis and reporting writing (8 weeks)

The current RFP should address the stage 2 (piloting of tools) and stage 3 (Data collection) of the whole study.

Tasks and Responsibilities of the Firm/Service Provider

The service provider will be responsible for the following:

  • To prepare and submit a data collection workplan in consultation with IOM
  • To pilot the tools in collaboration with IOM
  • To collect data upon the approved workplan (incl. categories of respondents) by IOM
  • To submit clean content analysis of the data collected
  • To submit a data collection monitoring report to IOM

Methodology

The assessment will employ qualitative methods (as explained under scope of work section) in 64 districts). Selection of the KIIs will be based on the consultation/recommendation of the MoHA and other key stakeholders. The service provider should deploy field researchers trained in qualitative data collection (including some of the ethnographic methods mentioned in previous sections). The research team should have a good balance of male and female researcher and should be trained to handle the ethical considerations of the interviewing a victim of trafficking (Bangladeshi and non-Bangladeshi).

Timeline

The total duration for this assignment will be 10 weeks.

Expected outputs and deliverables

The firm is expected to deliver a comprehensive and high-quality qualitative dataset to IOM.
Following is the list of all project deliverables on behalf of the service provider:

  • Inception report
  • Data collection work plan
  • Final Dataset including content analysis
  • Data collection monitoring report

IOM Project to which the Services is contributing

The project titled, Bangladesh: Addressing Trafficking and Smuggling through improved border management and Counter Trafficking Responses in Cox’s Bazar aims to prevent trafficking in persons and its associated abuses, protecting victims, and facilitating investigations with more effective border management and law enforcement capacity and practices. Several outputs have already been finalized to achieve the project’s goal. Within this, service provider is going to contribute to 

  • Output 2.1: An evidence-based border management and CT and counter-smuggling capacity building plan is approved by relevant government actors.

                    
Important considerations

  • All work must be completed in consultation with IOM project team.
  • The firm/service provider shall have the responsibility to clean the data and provide the content analysis to IOM.
  • The firm must deploy skilled researcher with sound qualitative data collection experience for the project.

Qualifications and Background

  • Extensive social science research skills with theoretical and practical experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative research in Bangladesh, preferably in the field of migration and human trafficking.
  • Proven technical capacity (data collection and analysis through STATA/SPSS) in survey.
  • Experience of working in Rohingya issue including trafficking would be added advantage.
  • Experience of working in government officials would be added advantage.
  • Ability to submit a concise and well written report in English based on the field information/results of the surveys and Focus Group Discussions.
  • Ability to gather information in an objective, appropriate and sensitive way by actively listening, paying full attention to the situation and information of participants.
  • Fluency in Bangla and English.
  • Ability to enter, transcribe, record and maintain data/information in Excel.
  • High-level of integrity.
  • Support to organize one validation and dissemination workshops.

Timeline

This study is scheduled for December 2019 to February 2020 (10 weeks)

Submission of Proposal

Please mention the reference code CT/CO-631/2019/029: RFP: IBM Study on Trafficking in subject line during application. Interested Organizations are invited to submit required documents by November 30, 2019, e-mail to: faahmed@iom.int via below mentioned email submit following three separate pdf files (attachment size should be less than 10 MB)

  • Technical proposal
    • It should include cover page, understanding of the assignment (Please do not copy & paste), methodology, a work-plan and team composition (annex CVs). – Max 5 pages excluding CVs
    • Previous experience in handling similar assignments (as per below mentioned format).

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  • Consultant/Organization Profile: A brief summary of the firm and CV of the expert including records on past experience in similar assignments and references – Max 1 page (excluding CVs)
  • Financial proposal listing all costs (including VAT) associated with the assignment. Firms will be responsible for any tax or VAT issues and need to submit the original bank challan copy at the time of final payment/settlement.

Any attempt for persuasion will be considered as a disqualification.
ONLY SHORT-LISTED ORGANIZATIONS/INDIVIDUALS WILL BE NOTIFIED.