Media personnel speak against human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children

KATHMANDU: Media personnel have stressed on the need of putting an end to human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of children citing it as a serious problem facing Nepal.

Speaking at an interaction program on “Human Trafficking & Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) and role of Media” organised on Wednesday to mark the occasion of 108th International Women's Day, media personnel and activists have asserted that human trafficking is one of the serious offences against law. Thus, media and other stakeholders should acknowledge their responsibility in preventing the crime for building a peaceful, stable and decent society.

Although Nepal has considered human trafficking as a hideous crime, cross border trafficking along with cases of domestic human trafficking have also grown recently. Moreover, women and children are at high risk of trafficking while children are the major victims of domestic human trafficking.

As per the Statistics presented in the programme, the percentage of children aged 12 to 25 who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation has risen from 11 to 20 percent recently.

According to International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) run by International Labour Organisation, around 12,000 women and children are trafficked annually in Nepal. Likewise, the latest report published by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC),  out of  23,200 victims of human trafficking, 60 per cent and adult females and young girls while 40 percent are adult males and boys.

Similarly, 227 cases of  human trafficking were registered by Nepal police in 2015/16 and 50,000 workers are involved in cabin restaurants, dance restaurants and massage parlors in Kathmandu Valley alone while 80 percent of the workers are females.

Alliance Against Trafficking of Women in Nepal (AATWIN), a community of organisations working to raise the strong and collective voice against the human trafficking had organised the interaction programme.