Indo-Nepal Human Trafficking Post Earthquake Perspective; Concerns and Challenges
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INDO-NEPAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING POST EARTHQUAKE PERSPECTIVE; CONCERNS AND CHALLENGES Compiled by Dinbandhu Vats Edited by Ajay K. Jha Indo-Nepal Human Trafficking Post Earthquake Perspective; Concerns and Challenges Compiled by Dinbandhu Vats Edited by Ajay K. Jha Copyleft August 2015 Cover picture & layout by Rajneesh Shrivastava Published by PAIRVI, G-30, First Floor, Lajpat Nagar-III, New delhi - 110024 Contact: 011-29841266, 65151897 | email: [email protected] website: www.pairvi.org s Nepal begins to recover from its deadliest disaster, the Acountry’s youngest survivors are now at a higher risk for another calamity of getting sold into the human trafficking trade. The two earthquakes that rocked Nepal on April 25 and May 12, 2015 killed over 8,500 people and caused extensive loss to swathes of countryside in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Bengal that borders Nepal.1 According to the Nepal government, the tiny Himalayan country stares at losses estimated at about 10 billion US dollar— nearly half of its gross domestic product of 19.64 billion US dollar.2 The United Nations estimates that 2.8 million people have been displaced after the earthquake and its aftershocks flattened their homes.3 Women have been disproportionately affected by disasters and the social breakdown that accompanies calamities has made them vulnerable to sexual abuse. Children need more than just material and physical relief after such an event. Confronted with scenes of destruction and death, many children have developed post-traumatic stress disorder. Left untreated, they could be prone to lasting psychological damage and emotional distress. Human trafficking is reportedly rising post earthquake along the India-Nepal border and unsuspecting Nepalese minors are being sold in various big cities of India under the pretext of providing jobs.4 Traffickers often pose as recruiters, offering non- existent jobs to desperate young women and girls, whose plight has become worse after the earthquake. Where promise of jobs Indo-Nepal Human Trafficking: A Challenge; Post Earthquake Perspective 1 doesn’t work, fake marriage proposals are floated to entice young girls and their parents and ultimately force them in the flesh trade.5 Children who lost their parents and children of parents who have lost their jobs in the disasters are prone to this bait of traffickers. Similar fears reportedly came true after the 2013 floods in Uttarakhand and to date there are no reports on what happened to those children who lost their families.6 Several internal human trafficking cases were reported after natural tragedies in recent years, including the 2001 Bhuj earthquake, the 2004 tsunami and the 2008 Kosi floods.7 Increased Risks of Trafficking Around 15,000 girls from Nepal are trafficked for sex trade in Asian countries each year, according to a UN estimate. Violence against women is also a real and present danger. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFP) claims that more than 28,000 women may be at risk of gender-based violence in the aftermath of the earthquake.8 There are now fears that camps for those displaced by the earthquake are being targeted. The problem of trafficking is sadly not new in Nepal. A UNICEF report found the number of women and children trafficked in year 2014 had risen by 60 per cent, compared to the previous year.9 US Department of State has classified Nepal as a Tier 2 country, meaning the government does not fully comply with the minimum standards of Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) but is making significant efforts to do so.10 The Nepal Government had banned children below 16 years of age from travelling outside their home district without a parent or 2 Indo-Nepal Human Trafficking: A Challenge; Post Earthquake Perspective other adult approved by the district child welfare board in May 2015.11 However, its impact is doubtful particularly when the traffickers are mostly known and are in relation to the victims. Risk of Child Marriage after Nepal Quake The massive earthquake in Nepal has also raises chances of spurt in child marriages as a disguise for the trafficking. According to CREHPA, a Nepalese group, which campaigns against child marriage, since there is risk of sexual assault on girls living in tents in Kathmandu after the quake, the families would be encouraged to marry off their daughters.12 Girls also may be married off because their parents have been killed, their families can no longer afford to keep them in school or because their schools were destroyed. More than 200 schools have been destroyed.13 Nepal already has a high level of child marriage with one in 10 girls married by the age of 15 and four in 10 before their 18th birthday, according to UN estimates. The rate is particularly high (75 percent) in the southern Terai region bordering India. Child marriage in Nepal is driven mostly by poverty and parents’ desire to protect girls but is aggravated by the dowry system. The older a girl gets the more dowry parents have to pay for her. Poor families marry off girls young so they don’t have to pay a high dowry.14 Cross Border Scenario The border between India and Nepal is 1,088 miles (1,751Km) long and only lightly patrolled.15 The mountainous portions of Indo-Nepal Human Trafficking: A Challenge; Post Earthquake Perspective 3 the Indo-Nepal boundary lie in Sikkim State and Darjeeling district of West Bengal in the east, while rest of the boundary runs along the plains in the south and along the Mahakali River in the west. Three India states namely Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar share the porous boundary in plains. Nepal-India border is unique in the world in the sense that people of both the countries can cross it from any point, despite the existence of border check posts at several locations. There are 22 check posts meant for carrying out bilateral trade. As the entire length of the border except the check posts is largely unmanned by police or paramilitary or military forces of either country, illegal movement of goods and people is common feature on both sides of the India-Nepal border.16 Nepali women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking in Nepal, India, the Middle East, China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Sweden. Nepali men, women, and children are subjected to forced labor in Nepal, India, the Middle East, China, Malaysia, South Korea, Israel, and the United States in construction.17 South Asia, with India at its centre, is the fastest-growing and second-largest region for human trafficking in the world, after East Asia, according to the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Over 1.5 Lakh people are known to be trafficked with in South Asia every year, but the trade is conducted underground and the real figure is likely to be much higher.18 Thousands of young girls are trafficked in India alone, including many from Nepal, and sold into forced marriage, bonded work as a prostitute or as a maid or paid for their organs. It is not an easy task to watch over and control thousand kilometre open border between Nepal and India. Though police posts are established at limited and important entry points for 4 Indo-Nepal Human Trafficking: A Challenge; Post Earthquake Perspective border security, policing the entire border is out of question. There are many roads that can be used to avoid the police posts at the entry points. However, trafficking also takes place with impunity at the places where police posts already exist. The traffickers take advantage of disorganized open border and traffic thousands of girls into India. Being brought over through overland routes, girls are being trafficked through aerial route to India. Nepal prohibits women under age 30 migrating to Gulf countries for domestic work, the traffickers have started to take these women to India by road and then sent to various Gulf countries by air. Human trafficking across the Indo-Nepal border is a serious concern. Estimates of Nepalese being trafficked into India vary from one to two lakh.19 Human Rights Watch (2005) estimated that 6,000-10,000 Nepalese are trafficked into India annually. 70 percent of trafficked victims, most of them under 16, come from ethnic minority groups (e.g., Tamang, Gurung, Magar and Sherpa) who live in remote mountain villages or poor border communities. Trafficked victims are sold to brokers for amounts as small as Nepali Rs. 200 who then deliver them to Indian brothels for amounts ranging from Rs. 16 to 40 thousand. India is also a transit country for Nepalese and Bangladeshi women trafficked to Pakistan, Western Asia, and the Middle East and for women trafficked from the Russian Federation to Thailand.20 Current Scenario at Indo Nepal Border As per UNICEF, at least 245 children have been intercepted from being trafficked and unnecessarily or illegally placed in children’s care homes since the first earthquake hit Nepal almost Indo-Nepal Human Trafficking: A Challenge; Post Earthquake Perspective 5 two months ago.21 The recent spike in migration from Nepal to Indian states bordering the Himalayan country is suspected to be the outcome of human trafficking. Large number of trafficked girls and children from Nepal were rescued in Delhi airport while fleeing to Dubai.22 According to the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), mandated to guard Indo-Nepal frontier and collect intelligence on suspicious activities, a large number of victims were stopped along the Raxaul and Jogbani border in Bihar, Rupaidiha and Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh and Jhulaghat in Uttarakhand. Trafficking incidents started to rise within a week after the quake. PAIRVI along with partners from India and Nepal conducted a series of consultations in Border States, which revealed huge spurt in migration and human trafficking along the border.