The Delhi-based voluntary organisation Stop's President Roma Debabrata accompanied the girls -- one of Nilphamari and the other of Narail -- to Dhaka yesterday morning.

The law enforcers contacted their families following a report published in the daily Janakantha on January 22 which also helped the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA) to bring them back.

The human traffickers had lured them of jobs in India and took them to Mumbai. Indian police arrested them when they got down from the train in Mumbai about a year ago.

Roma Debabrata, also advisory member of State Level Coordination Committee of Children & Women of Social Welfare Department in Delhi, said the trafficking of teenage girls from Bangladesh is on the rise. They are either employed in forced labour or prostitution.

"Many girls including the Bangladeshi ones who had been working in the bars as dancers are now working at brothels following the government's ban on using girls as bar dancers last year," Debabrata said.

At a press briefing at her office BNWLA Executive Secretary Advocate Salma Ali said at least 500 trafficked victims were repatriated from India in the last 15 years. "This is not even 10 percent of the total number of trafficked victims," she said.

Praising the media's role in curbing trafficking, she said poverty alleviation and upgrading social values are the most important things that can reduce the rate of trafficking in the country.