KATHMANDU – Government of Nepal has launched an employment generation program with a view to ending poverty in the country.
However, those who are the victims of human trafficking do not get the chances of employment. There have been programs launched by the government in the past which could not provide employment to the victims of human trafficking, alleges the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission).
Such programs include Prime Minister Employment Program, Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Program and Youth Employment by Youth Council.
Prime Minister Employment Program launched last year could not employee a single person who are victims of human trafficking and other returnees from foreign employment who were caught in violence – both physical and psychological in nature, declares the NHRC adding further, “As many as 175,000 youths got the jobs under the banner of PM employment guarantee program but none of them belonged to the category of tricked, mugged and trafficked Nepalese workforce who returned home from foreign land.”
Among those who have been trafficked outside or inside Nepal, the numbers of women far exceed the men. However, these unfortunate Nepalese women stay without a job in their own country.
Yashoda Banjadele, the NHRC official who supervises the department of human trafficking, confirms that the victims of human trafficking and their family members are being neglected by the government by not involving them in any government-sponsored employment schemes.
In absence of any job given to them, victims of human trafficking and their family become the target of verbal attacks where others hurl innuendoes, jibes, abuses, says Banjadele. In the face of such discrimination and prejudice shown by their own villagers and countrymen, they leave the place of permanent residence and they are highly likely to be trafficked once again.
High risk of human trafficking
Not less than 35,000 Nepalese youth get trafficked out of the country every year. The NHRC reveals in its annual report that the majority of the trafficked Nepalese youth (both men and women) are at high risk of physical and emotional abuse, exploitation, modern-day slavery and blackmailing.
A total of 1.5 million of those Nepalese youth who have been trafficked are at high risk as they are not given further training to give them a new skill or make them improve upon their existing skill, indicates the NHRC in its report.
Human traffickers convince the credulous Nepalese women of their bright future and move them out of the country. Government of Nepal has taken a separate budget for socialization scheme of victims who are returnees of foreign employment but has failed to rehabilitate the victims of human trafficking.
Yashoda Banjadele suggests the Government of Nepal create a separate fund in the annual budget to give them jobs and impart skills and training to all those who have been victims of human trafficking.
Rise in human trafficking due to domestic violence
For the last several years, human trafficking in Nepal has been on the rise because of domestic violence. Many women looking for an escape from domestic violence falls in the trap of human traffickers and their ordeal of suffering begins.
Most of these women who are trafficked have been living without their husbands as their husbands were away in foreign employment, reveals a study conducted in 16 districts of Nepal. Human traffickers move these women away to Malaysia, Gulf countries and other war-torn countries.
Mohana Ansari, a member of the National Human Rights Commission considers domestic violence as the foremost cause of human trafficking of Nepalese women. She adds, “Nepalese women when their husbands are away in foreign employment feel unsafe and threatened by other male members inside the house. This is why they step out of the house to go to foreign countries with the help of agents and traffickers.”
Uneducated women dreaming big to earn a lot of money and live a luxurious life are trapped by human traffickers. Nepalese women are being trafficked to all parts of the world into different continents like Europe and Africa besides the Middle East.
Unfortunately, the Government of Nepal has not done anything to employ them here in Nepal when they come back.
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