Traffickers lure girls with attractive job offers

Kathmandu, October 25:

Up to 5,000 sex workers are working in the Kathmandu valley, a recent study claims.

“Although there are no red light areas, flesh trade is flourishing. According to recent

estimates, there are between 4000 and 5000 female sex

workers in the Kathmandu valley,” states the study conducted by the Daywalka Foundation and Centre for Research on Environment, Health and Population Activities.

“Though we have not undertaken any official survey, our estimates roughly match with this survey figure,” Senior Superintendent of Police and chief of the crime branch of the Metropolitan Police, Upendra Kanta Aryal, told this daily today, adding, “We have taken action against roughly the same number of female sex workers.”

According to the report, concentration of traffickers is high in the valley in general and the capital city in particular. As the city is the main business and economic hub of the country, the influx of job-seekers and migration of rural youths either for higher education or employment is very high.

Poverty, lack of employment opportunities, migration, low-paying jobs and gender discrimination, lack of female education and lack of awareness are causing girl-trafficking to flourish in the country, according to the study.

It also states that the traffickers lure women, children and men in the name of better opportunities and other attractions and finally force them into flesh trade.

“Modern traffickers have many faces. They are human resource managers, who import domestic workers and hold them in isolation and forced labour at their homes. They are members of organised crime networks that push people into forced prostitution.”

There are four tires of traffickers — master trafficker, primary trafficker, secondary trafficker and spotters. The master traffickers are the kingpin in the trafficking hierarchy and control the supply chain.

The traffickers usually trap girls and women with false marriage proposals and attractive job offers, says the study. “The trafficker or his accomplice projects himself as the potential bridegroom, convinces the parents and the girl, opts for marriage rituals and then trafficks the victim.”

About seven per cent out of the total of 2,210 prisoners serving jail terms in the Kathmandu valley in cases related to human trafficking. Most of the imprisoned male traffickers are from Sindhupalchok, Nuwakot, Dhading and Makawanpur districts. The study also states that poor law enforcement is to blame for rise in these crimes.

“We have to socially and economically analyse the crime as criminal law alone cannot curb this malaise. We have to analyse why this crime (flesh trade) is continuing as there are some districts where people have socially accepted this practice as a source of income,” SSP Aryal says.