40 of the 80-90 active unions in the sector engaged in genuine negotiations with employers. The Labour Ministry reported the fisheries sector had 64 active unions. Only 70 tanneries were unionized under the sector’s single union. The tea sector had one union, the largest in the country, representing around 150,000 workers at 167 plantations. b. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor The law prohibits all forms of forced or compulsory labor outside prisons, but the government did not effectively enforce the law. Inspection mechanisms to enforce laws against forced labor did not function effectively. Resources, inspections, and remediation efforts were inadequate. During the year, law enforcement officers conducted few investigations and denied credible reports of official complicity in hundreds of forced labor cases. The law requires victims of forced labor have access to shelter and other protective services afforded to trafficking victims, but the government did not always provide such services, nor did it consistently follow victim identification procedures. There were no government-owned shelters for adult male victims. Children and adults were also forced into domestic servitude and bonded labor that involved restricted movement, nonpayment of wages, threats, and physical or sexual abuse. According to the DIFE, at least 297 abuse cases were pending at labor courts across the country, while 106 cases were pending in Dhaka and 60 in Narayanganj. Charges were mostly for voluntarily causing grievous hurt, assault, and torture at brick kilns. According to the International Labor Organization, significant numbers of child laborers were employed at brick kilns. To find workers to fulfill their tasks, which require no special skills, kiln operators and their agents targeted poverty-stricken villages and urban slums to recruit unskilled laborers. Traffickers exploited workers in forced labor through debt-based coercion and bonded labor in the shrimp and fish-processing industries, tea estates, aluminum and garment factories, brick kilns, dry fish production, and shipbreaking. NGOs reported government border and local police officials permitted traffickers to recruit and operate at India-Bangladesh border crossings and maritime embarkation points. Page 54