Human trafficking in Nepal
[4] According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, human trafficking is the acquisition of people by improper means such as deception, force, or fraud, with the goal of exploiting them.
[6] According to a conservative estimate by the International Labour Organization, around 2.4 million people—overwhelmingly women and girls—are currently in forced labor as a result of trafficking, creating a US$32 billion industry worldwide.
[citation needed] According to the Office of the National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Women and Children, quoted by Gurung and Kachchhap, “There is no required passport and visa resulting in easy passage.
[citation needed] This largely unsupervised boundary facilitates human trafficking, with India serving as both a transit and destination country for victims of this inhumane crime.
Victims, especially girls and women, are trafficked to Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Russia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states.
[18] A commercial sex act includes prostitution, pornography or sexual performance done in exchange for an item of value, such as money, shelter, food, drugs, or clothes.
[10] Forced labor refers to "situations in which persons are coerced to work through the use of violence or intimidation, or by more subtle means such as accumulated debt, retention of identity papers, or threats of denunciation to immigrant authorities.
"[23] Elements of forced labor include deception, exploitation and abuse, violating the International Labour Organization Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, adopted in 1998.
[26] In Nepal, bonded labor is mostly seen in agriculture, but it can also be found in brick kilns, domestic work, embroidery workshops, tea shops, and small restaurants.
[9] Victims come from all areas of Nepal, but most targeted are those in traditionally disadvantaged, marginalized groups such as the Dalit caste (untouchables) and ethnic minorities ("janajati", indigenous peoples).
Traffickers often obtain authentic legal documents for the victims they traffic, but withhold them from the victims after borders are crossed[9] Besides using false promises of well-paying employment, false love, and marriage, traffickers also play the role of "guardians" for girls and women, often under the guise of helping them seek medical treatment or guiding them to reach their husband or relatives in India.
While the lack of education limits their economic prospects, it also heavily diminishes individuals' awareness of their rights and restricts their ability to make informed decisions to safeguard themselves against exploitation.
[21] Tolerance of domestic and sexual violence create immense obstacles for victims to leave abusive circumstances or seek effective legal recourse.
Furthermore, women who are divorced, abandoned, victims of rape, or sex workers face enormous levels of stigma and are ostracized by their families and communities, making them vulnerable to trafficking.
The psychological effects of trafficking are often more neglected than the social and physical consequences, despite its extremely large influence on personal quality of life and on society.
[20] Because of the prolonged abuse, victims often suffer from physical and emotional trauma such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, and drug addiction.
[45][46] In contrast with non-coerced sex workers, those who have been trafficked may have been forced to have unprotected sexual intercourse with clients, leading to the higher rate of HIV prevalence.
[21] Once these women have been diagnosed with HIV, they face stigma, rejection, and social isolation, making it harder to reintegrate into society if they do manage to get out of sex work.
[17] Many have extreme difficulty reintegrating into society due to the strong stigma they face of being previous sex workers regardless of the fact they were forced into it.
[14] Survivors consider marriage to be the most reliable and desired social reintegration strategy; some hide their previous lives and HIV status from their new husbands.
[14][17] Because of the stigma and lack of skills and education, combined with Nepal's limited employment and livelihood opportunities for women that are considered socially acceptable, many survivors re-enter sex work.
[11] Nepal's Muluki Ain is a "comprehensive code relating to civil, criminals, as well as procedural and substantive laws of the kingdom" (Center for Legal Research and Resource Development, 2002, p. 11).
[14] In addition to legislation, the Nepali government drafted a National Plan of Action (NPA) against Trafficking in Children and Women for Sexual and Labour Exploitation in 1998 which was revised in 2001.
[9] The NPA has identified eight areas of action: i) policy, research and institutional development; ii) legislation and enforcement; iii) awareness creation, advocacy, networking and social mobilization; iv) health and education; v) income and employment generation; vi) rescue and reintegration; vii) trans-border, regional and international issues and viii) monitoring and evaluation.
[34] Various NGOs in Nepal are focused on programs that work to prevent the trafficking of women and girls, as well as to rehabilitate survivors and help reintegrate them into their communities.
[47] These activities are executed through seminars, rallies, street theater performances, prevention camps, peer education, and community support groups.
[47] Despite being generally regarded as important and helpful to victims, anti-trafficking NGOs in Nepal are sometimes criticized on their ideology, methods, effectiveness, and transparency.
Furthermore, in researcher interviews, survivors in NGO-run shelters were highly critical of the traditional skills training that is offered to them such as sewing and garment-making, which they complain are not sufficient to support themselves in the local economy.
Socioeconomic factors such as pervasive poverty, a global economy with demand for cheap and slave labor, and lack of opportunities for Nepali locally continue to drive the cycle of vulnerability.
Furthermore, elements of the greater socioeconomic and cultural climate such as gender inequality, stigma, and lack of respect for human rights, especially those of women and children, remain imposing societal obstacles toward fighting trafficking.
