Ministry working for rehabilitation of stranded women: MoFA

KATHMANDU: Media is currently abuzz with reports on rescue of Nepali women who had been illegally trafficked to India with the motive of transporting them to a third country for 'employment'.

Nepal woke up to the news of the women's rescue and the subsequent hassles following a series of tweets by Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Chairperson Swati Maliwal, who spearheaded the rescue mission.

The Commission and Delhi Police have been at loggerheads over the treatment of the women where Maliwal has even come down aggressively on Delhi Police, further accusing them of being defensive of their failure rather than carrying fair investigations. Delhi Police, however, fended off accusations leveled at them for their lack of accountability.

Meanwhile, Government of Nepal authorities have not responded to the recent-most development entailing rescue of 39 women by the DWC in a Pahargunj based hotel. The public is questioning Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA)'s silence as it has not offered any official statement on the procedures that have been incorporated to repatriate/rehabilitate the stranded women, or simply a statement of acknowledgement.

THT Online contacted the MoFA to catch the ministry's response.

Spokesperson at MoFA, Joint Secretary Bharat Raj Poudel, said that the ministry has been closely following the recent developments. The first lot of women rescued in the last week have already been repatriated under supervision of ministry unit, namely the Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi. They arrived in Kathmandu on Tuesday and are under supervision of Nepal Police's Women Cell, according to Poudel.

"It is untrue that the state authorities are sitting idle with their hands tied in this case. The first lot of the rescued women are here while the second lot comprising 16 women have been contacted and kept in a safe-shelter in coordination with our Embassy in New Delhi," added Poudel.

The spokesperson further stated that procedures to handle the case involving the recently rescued women are underway and there are certain complications that need to be dealt with prior to the repatriation process.

"Some of the rescued women are now unwilling to return as they insist they chose foreign employment on will and hence they will also return on their own will whereas some have decided to return to Nepal. We have to resolve these nitty-gritties before taking an official action," informed the joint-secy.

In response to our query as to why the authorities have not, at the least, released a statement of acknowledgement in this case that has garnered such public curiosity and generated questions, Poudel said, "This is not the first time we are dealing with an issue of this nature. Such cases have to be dealt with much sensitivity and we must respect the requests of those women who in such cases who do not want their identities to be made public. They want to avoid public scrutiny and we must honour that."

"We have made public the middlemen and brokers who conducted such illegal trafficking in the past. Had the case been the same, we would have been consistent in dealing with it. But such matters require privacy and we shall maintain that."

The ministry officials ensured that the stranded women will be rehabilitated soon.

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