Human trafficking: Racketeers using new route

KATHMANDU: Among the most serious issues challenging humanity and rationality, arms and ammunition, drug trafficking and human trafficking are regarded as the threat to modern civilization. Although the third serious threat to humanity and human security, human trafficking is turning chronic in Nepal.

Nepal Police is aware of the gravity of human trafficking and has intensified its attempt to curb it, but the substantive result seems still far.

The police have been working by forming a distinct bureau ‘Anti Human Trafficking Investigation Bureau’ for the same. There are various agencies both from the government sector or non-government sector working hard to curb the problem, but the trafficking rate is far from decreasing. The police claim that the working strategy of racketeers has been changed.

Case 1: Anti Human Trafficking Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police arrested two women alleged in the incident of trafficking a 12-year-old girl and taking her to Ranibag, Delhi in India on Nov. 25, 2019. Juna Kumari Khadka alias Josna from Dhanusha runs a brothel in Delhi and Simran Tamang alias Sita Lama from Birgunj was arrested in Dhanusha.

According to Ishwor Babu Karki, the chief of the bureau, the police successfully returned the underaged girl back to her home. Simran, the sister in law of the victim is said to have influenced the girl with false promises to ease the route to Delhi.

Case 2: 6 youths from Nepal taken into hostage in Malawi when they were heading for the USA were brought back to Nepal in coordination with Malawi Police. According to the police, among the hostages, 4 are from Parvat, 1 from Dang, and another 1 from Rukum. Before they were taken hostage in Malawi, they had been forbearing torture in Vietnam, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Jordan, Dubai, and Azerbaijan.

The investigation shows that the racketeers kept those victims in Vietnam for 20 days.

Similarly, they were kept 4 months in Ethiopia, 15 days in Madagaskar, 1 month in Jordan, 45 days in Dubai and 20 days in Azerbaijan. Nazi Ahamad, a Malawian citizen of Indian origin was arrested by the police.

Case 3: The police arrested 6 Nepali and 4 Chinese nationals for their suspected involvement in the act of getting a Nepali girl married with a Chinese.  The police rescued 4 victims in the case.

Case 4: The Bureau rescued and brought 4 Nepali youths (3 men and 1 woman) taken hostage for 10 months in Jakarta and Bali Indonesia. According to SSP Karki, those released in August were the youths on their way to Australia.

Case 5: Last year74 young women taken hostage in Delhi were rescued from there. Most of them had been to Iraq and Oman before.

According to the police sources, Nepali agents were involved in their hostage. Some of such agents are arrested by the police.

After the government’s restriction on taking Nepali women as domestic labor in the Gulf and Africa, the agents have started using the Indian route.

The above are the 5 representative cases of trafficking. The instances of trafficking are rambling regularly. According to the police, the official complainants are also increasing.

As per the statistics at the police headquarter, 1005 cases of human trafficking have been filed in the last 4 years; 1176 of the alleged are arrested by the police.

Here is the statistics of human trafficking:

                     Source: Nepal Police Headquarter

The data show that the involvement of foreigners in human trafficking is increasing these days. According to DIGP Sailesh Thapa Chhetri, the spokesperson of the bureau, among the agents alleged of trafficking 46 foreigners are arrested by the police.

Women’s participation in human trafficking is alarming in Nepal. According to the police, they have detained 322 women alleged in human trafficking.

According to the police statistics, 743 alleged are absconding in the last 5 years. The arrested are sued as per the Human Trafficking and Transportation (Control) Act 2007.

35000 trafficked every year

The number of people falling victim to trafficking is increasing every year. According to the Human Trafficking Report 2019, published by the National Human Rights Commission, 35000 people were sold or trafficked last year.

The report shows that 12000 were the victim of foreign employment, whereas 7000 youths were involved in the entertainment sector when 3000 children are found to have been trafficked.

According to Mohana Ansari, a commissioner at NHRC, 1.2 million teenage girls belonging to the 13-19 age group are on the verge of trafficking. Similarly, 21000 are likely to fall prey in the adult entertain sector and 200 thousand are in preparation for foreign employment when 100 thousand children are at high risk of child labor.

According to the NHRC report, although the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation holds a large space, trafficking for forced labor, kidnapping, and trade of illegal goods and items is also on a rise.

According to former AIGP Navaraj Dhakal, many Nepali women are trafficked to involve them in the entertainment world of Sri Lanka, Maldives, Malaysia, Gulf countries and Kenya and Tanzania in Africa.

Here are the routes of human trafficking:

According to the Human Trafficking Investigation Bureau, the racketeers,  while trafficking people to the USA, use TIA as an exit point for Delhi in India and from Delhi, they take them via Moscow, Spain, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala to Mexico.

According to the Bureau chief SSP Karki, they wait for the right time to get into the USA via Mexico. Karki speculates the involvement of an international group of racketeers in such transport.

Similarly, the traffickers use TIA as an exit for Dubai-Libya- Italy transport of the victims; later they disperse the trafficked to various countries in Europe.

The trafficking agents use an alternative route to take to the gulf countries as well. As an alternative route, they use Kathmandu to Delhi and Delhi to Mijuram and later Sri Lanka to send the Nepalis illegally to the gulf countries.

According to SSP Karki, the fraudsters use Nepal- Delhi- Dubai route to materialize trafficking for African countries.

On the other hand, the human trafficking report prepared by NHRC shows that the fraudsters have found India- Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia as the alternative new route to the traditional Nepal India route.