Photojournalism: Child Marriage & Sex Trafficking in Bangladesh: cm_br_asj-04

A trafficker who goes by his initials AMA stands for a photo over a brothelHe estimates that he’s trafficked at least 27 girls over the past eight years into the brothel. “It’s a transaction,” he says. “I receive a phone call from someone who has a girl, and I buy her for 20,000 taka [£175], before transporting the girl across the country and sell her for 10,000 taka [£87.50] more.” The younger the girl, the more money he makes – charging up to 50,000 taka [£439] for a 13 or 14 year old, and specifically targeting girls who have already been married “because they make less of a fuss”. He’s not concerned about the police, he adds. “If they stop me, I say I’m the girl’s boyfriend, and they leave us alone.”

A trafficker who goes by his initials AMA stands for a photo over a brothel

He estimates that he’s trafficked at least 27 girls over the past eight years into the brothel. “It’s a transaction,” he says. “I receive a phone call from someone who has a girl, and I buy her for 20,000 taka [£175], before transporting the girl across the country and sell her for 10,000 taka [£87.50] more.” The younger the girl, the more money he makes – charging up to 50,000 taka [£439] for a 13 or 14 year old, and specifically targeting girls who have already been married “because they make less of a fuss”. He’s not concerned about the police, he adds. “If they stop me, I say I’m the girl’s boyfriend, and they leave us alone.”