Open trafficking
Employment
opportunities should be created in Nepal to prevent cross-border trafficking
between Nepal and India
Following the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the
Ministry of Home Affairs said that human trafficking from Nepal to India
witnessed “a three-fold jump”. The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) reported that most
of the victims were minors, with girls and boys in equal numbers, and many were
from the earthquake-affected districts of Nepal. In Dhangadhi and Rupandehi
districts of Nepal, representatives of NGOs working on human trafficking said
that quake-affected Sindhupalchowck district was among the key source districts
for cross-border trafficking to India. A large number of women from this
district left the country after the earthquake to find employment abroad,
either through Rasuwagadhi or some other transit point along the India-Nepal
border, said Asha from an NGO. “The destination countries for most of them were
Kyrgyzstan, Israel, West Asia, and India. Many have also left for Kathmandu,”
she said.
But identifying cases of human
trafficking is not easy. Pancha Kumar Bakhu, who is Inspector, Area Police
Office, Barabise in Sindhupalchowk, said: “No case of human trafficking has
been registered since 2015, but ‘love affair’ (elopement) cases have been
registered.” It is often difficult to identify a human trafficking case at the
source since the victim may have been lured through the false promise of
marriage or a job, said advocate Adrian Phillips from Justice and Care, an NGO
that works on human trafficking.
The Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and
Friendship, 1950 provides for an open border between Nepal and India. At the
Gauriphanta border in Lakhimpur Kheri district and Sanuali border in
Maharajganj district of U.P. bordering Nepal, I discovered how easy it was to
cross over to Nepal. An official from SSB at Gauriphanta, which guards the
Indian side of the border, said that those entering India are not stopped, but
“those with luggage are stopped and questioned.” As I crossed over to Dhangadi
in Nepal from Gauriphanta, an official from the Armed Police Force, which
guards the Nepali side, said that individuals are stopped on the basis of
“suspicion, intelligence or information from family members or relatives.” The
SSB also profiles victims and suspects.
Closing the border may prevent
cross-border trafficking, but it could also engender or accentuate economic
vulnerabilities for those who have jobs or own businesses along the border.
Poverty and unemployment in Sindhupalchowck have left young people vulnerable
to internal and cross-border trafficking through the Rasuwagadi-Kerung border.
It is imperative to create economic opportunities, particularly for the youth,
within the country. Further, the Nepal-India border needs to be equipped with
enhanced intelligence networks and effective monitoring mechanisms.
Meha Dixit has a PhD in International
Politics from JNU and has taught at Kashmir University
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