BIMSTEC Delhi Declaration: Cooperation Against Forced Criminality

Why in News?

The first BIMSTEC Home Ministers’ Meeting adopted the Delhi Declaration in New Delhi on 13 October 2026, calling for regional security cooperation against trafficking, terrorism and transnational crime.

• The declaration specifically recognises forced criminality: trafficked people compelled to conduct online fraud and scam operations.
• It calls for a victim-centred approach involving countries of origin, transit and destination, alongside countries hosting scam centres and defrauded individuals.
• It seeks implementation of existing cooperation instruments while urging early finalisation of unfinished conventions and victim-rescue procedures.

• A scam operation can connect human trafficking and financial fraud across borders; a purely domestic investigation may capture only one part of that chain.
• Regional cooperation must connect victim protection with evidence gathering without treating an international declaration as permission to bypass national law.

UPSC Relevance

Prelims Relevance

• BIMSTEC: Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.
• Members: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
• Forced criminality: exploiting trafficked victims by compelling criminal activity.
• Distinction between mutual legal assistance and extradition.
• Delhi Declaration: victim-centred cooperation within domestic laws and applicable international obligations.

Mains Relevance

GS Paper 2

• Regional institutions and sovereign equality in cross-border cooperation.
• Rights-based responses to trafficking and victim rehabilitation.

GS Paper 3

• Cyber-enabled organised crime, human trafficking and financial investigation.

Essay

• Security cooperation is strongest when protection of people accompanies prosecution of crime.

Background and Context

What Forced Criminality Changes

The declaration connects online fraud with exploitation of the people made to carry it out.

• Forced criminality describes the exploitation identified here: organised groups compel trafficked victims to perpetrate online scams. The person communicating with a fraud victim may also be under coercion, debt bondage or other abuse.
• Two forms of harm can coexist in the same operation: exploitation of trafficked workers and financial loss suffered by those deceived. Investigations should examine both without assuming everyone performing a scam has the same role.
• Victim identification matters before assigning responsibility. A victim-centred response examines coercion and exploitation, rather than reading a person’s presence in a scam centre as sufficient evidence of freely chosen participation in an organised criminal enterprise.
• Technology helps criminal groups facilitate trafficking and exploit victims in online fraud, according to the declaration. This joins human-security and cybercrime concerns; treating them as unrelated problems can leave the underlying exploitation insufficiently examined.
• Rescue alone is an incomplete policy response. The declaration also seeks procedures for repatriation and reintegration, recognising that returning a person across a border does not itself settle their protection and recovery needs.

Why Several Countries Must Cooperate

The relevant jurisdictions are defined by the trafficking and fraud chain, rather than by the location of one arrested suspect.

• Origin, transit and destination countries have different connections to the movement and exploitation of victims. The declaration explicitly asks them to cooperate rather than leaving responsibility solely to the country where a victim is found.
• Scam-centre locations and countries where individuals are defrauded also belong in this response. That distinction matters because the place of exploitation and the place of financial harm need not be the same jurisdiction.
• Domestic law remains the operating framework: cooperation is required within respective jurisdictions and across borders, subject to applicable international obligations. The declaration does not grant a member’s police unrestricted authority inside another member’s territory.
• Sovereign equality, territorial integrity and non-interference frame BIMSTEC security cooperation. Its work complements bilateral and other regional arrangements; it does not replace those channels or create a single regional criminal-justice jurisdiction.
• Implementation depends on institutions after the meeting. The declaration directs the Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime and its subgroups to follow up, while encouraging specialised training across member states.

Separate Commitments From Completed Legal Instruments

The official declaration distinguishes existing instruments from texts still needing agreement.

• The Delhi Declaration records agreed political directions. Adoption should not be described as enactment of a common criminal law, creation of a regional police force or an automatic right to extradite suspects.
• The counter-terrorism convention, covering international terrorism, transnational organised crime and illicit drug trafficking, entered into force in March 2021. The declaration calls for full implementation of this existing instrument rather than announcing its first adoption.
• Mutual legal assistance concerns cooperation in criminal matters; extradition concerns surrender of a person. The declaration refers to a signed assistance convention while separately asking members to finish the extradition convention’s text.
• Trafficking and prisoner-transfer conventions also require early finalisation, alongside rescue, repatriation and reintegration procedures. These requests identify unfinished work; they are not evidence that all the proposed instruments are already operational across member states.
• Information sharing is another pending step: members are asked to consult further on a proposed mechanism covering trafficking and migrant smuggling. Its future operation must follow national legal frameworks, rather than unrestricted cross-border data exchange.

Way Forward

Make Cooperation Usable in Individual Cases

• Develop victim-referral procedures linking rescue, interpreters, safe return and reintegration, with clear responsibilities for the countries involved.
• Use lawful evidence requests and financial investigation alongside rescue, so action reaches organisers and proceeds rather than stopping at people found inside scam centres.
• Assess progress through implemented procedures, case cooperation and victim protection; do not equate another declaration with completed enforcement arrangements.

Conclusion

• The Delhi Declaration’s useful contribution is to connect forced criminality with victim-centred regional cooperation. It recognises that online fraud can involve both exploitation of workers and harm to people deceived across borders.
• For analysis, separate political commitment, existing legal instruments and unfinished negotiations. Effective cooperation requires protection of victims and coordination between jurisdictions, with domestic law remaining central to how individual cases are handled.

UPSC Practice Questions

Prelims MCQ 1

With reference to the BIMSTEC Delhi Declaration adopted in October 2026, consider the following statements:

1. It recognises that trafficking victims may be forced to carry out online scams.
2. It makes regional security cooperation a substitute for bilateral cooperation.
3. It calls for early finalisation of the convention on extradition.

How many of the above statements are correct?

(a) Only one (b) Only two (c) All three (d) None

Answer: (b) Only two

Explanation:

Statements 1 and 3 are correct. The declaration expressly makes BIMSTEC cooperation complementary to, rather than a substitute for, bilateral and other cooperation.

Prelims MCQ 2

Which approach best reflects the declaration’s response to scam-centre trafficking?

(a) Treat every person conducting an online scam as acting voluntarily (b) Limit cooperation to the country where the scam centre operates (c) Coordinate relevant jurisdictions while respecting victims’ rights and domestic laws (d) Allow foreign police to operate anywhere in the region without legal procedures

Answer: (c) Coordinate relevant jurisdictions while respecting victims’ rights and domestic laws

Explanation:

The declaration includes origin, transit and destination countries as well as locations of scam centres and defrauded individuals, with a victim-centred approach and legal safeguards.

UPSC Mains Questions

1. How does trafficking for forced criminality complicate the distinction between offenders and victims? Discuss the requirements of a victim-centred regional response.
2. Evaluate the potential and limitations of BIMSTEC cooperation against transnational organised crime, with reference to the Delhi Declaration.

Source: PIB, Ministry of Home Affairs.

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