Dhaka: The Indian government on Saturday approved the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between India and Bangladesh to facilitate faster and cheaper cargo movement between both the nations.

The Indian union cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval for the pact ‘on prevention of human trafficking especially trafficking in women and children: rescue, recovery, repatriation and reintegration of victims of human trafficking’, said an official statement.

‘The benefit of this agreement is that freight charges will come down and improve utilisation of port capabilities between the two countries’, said Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, PTI reported.

The MoU features strengthening ‘cooperation [between India and Bangladesh] to prevent all forms of the human trafficking, especially that of women and children and ensure the speedy investigation and prosecution of traffickers and organised crime syndicates in either country’.

The MoU also includes ‘enumeration of preventive measures that would be taken to eliminate human trafficking in women and children and in protecting the rights of victims of trafficking’.

‘Repatriation of victims would be done as expeditiously as possible and the home country will undertake the safe and effective reintegration of the victims’, the statement added.

Task Force of Bangladesh and India was constituted to take coordinated action against individuals, touts, agents involved in human trafficking and meetings of the Task Force are being held regularly. Accordingly, four meetings of the Task Force have been held so far.

During the fourth meeting of the Task Force which was held in Mumbai from 6-7 April 2014, both sides reviewed the progress on decisions taken in the earlier meetings and held comprehensive discussions and finalised the text of the draft MOU on prevention of human trafficking.