Kathmandu, July 1

Many Nepalis living in areas affected by the earthquake that struck Nepal in April, 2015 are vulnerable to trafficking, warned the annual Trafficking in Persons Report, 2016 issued by the US Department of State yesterday.

Traffickers utilise social media and mobile technologies to exploit their victims. Some government officials are reportedly bribed to include false information in genuine Nepali passports, including of age documents for child sex trafficking victims, or to provide fraudulent documents to prospective labour migrants, a tactic used by unscrupulous recruiters to evade recruitment regulations, it said.

The report said that Nepal was a source, transit, and destination for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. Nepali women and girls were subjected to sex trafficking in Nepal, India, the Middle East, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, and Nepali men and children were susceptible to forced labour in Nepal, India, the Middle East, Asia, and the United States in construction, factories, mines, domestic work, begging, and the adult entertainment industry.

In many cases, the imposition of high fees facilitates forced labour, and recruitment agencies engage in fraudulent recruitment. Unregistered migrants  including large number of Nepalis who travel through India or rely on unregistered recruiting agents  are particularly vulnerable to forced labour and sex trafficking.

Some migrants from Bangladesh and possibly other countries transit Nepal en route to employment in the Middle East, using potentially falsified Nepali travel documents, and may be subjected to human trafficking.

Nepali and Indian children are subjected to forced labour in the country, especially in domestic work, brick kilns, and the embroidered textile, or zari industry. Bonded labour exists in agriculture, brick kilns, stone-breaking industry, and domestic work.

The report has rated Nepal as a Tier 2 nation, meaning it does not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards but is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with those standards.

It rates 190 nations  up from last year’s 188 with the addition of Libya and Yemen  on how effectively governments are tackling human trafficking on a scale from the worst on Tier 3 to best on Tier 1.

The report said the Nepal government does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The government continued to prosecute suspected traffickers in 2015 and adopted labour migration guidelines in April 2015, including a policy to reduce the financial burden on Nepali migrant workers at risk of being subjected to trafficking.

The government’s victim identification and protection efforts remained inadequate, and the government did not track the total number of victims identified. The impact of the April 2015 earthquake placed a significant strain on government resources.

The report has recommended the government to increase law enforcement efforts against all trafficking, including sex trafficking of Nepali females within Nepal and against officials complicit in trafficking-related crimes.