Kathmandu, July 1

The Ministry of Home Affairs is planning to depute police attachés to Nepali embassies in labour destinations with high number of Nepali migrant workers.

A high-level official at the MoHA informed that arrangements were being made to depute police attachés in the embassies abroad, mainly the Gulf countries, to facilitate security of Nepalis, coordinate the investigation of charges levelled against them, control cases of fraud and prevent people from being trafficked in the name of foreign employment.

Nepal Police had long been lobbying the government for a provision of police attaché in labour destinations to prevent human trafficking. It is the second largest criminal industry after drug trafficking in the world.

The ministry official said the government had also decided to strengthen professional relations with foreign countries and international organisations, including INTERPOL and UNDOC, keeping in mind that crime knew no borders.

According to police, human traffickers have been capitalising on the terrain of the country, lack of employment opportunities, low education level and poverty to lure unsuspecting people, including women and girls, to foreign countries with the promise of lucrative jobs and better future. The victims feel cheated only when they are left to fend for themselves in a foreign land.

“Scores of suspects in connection with human trafficking are still living in foreign countries. The provision of a police attaché in Nepali embassies abroad is being considered to apprehend traffickers and bring them to justice,” said a police official.

Once Nepali women and girls trafficked by organised crime syndicates used to end up in the Indian cities of New Delhi and Mumbai. Now it is not limited to neighbouring countries. The web of trafficking for worst forms of slavery and sexual exploitation has gradually spread to Gulf, African and Latin American countries.

Lack of mutual agreements and extradition treaty with emerging destination countries has also posed a serious challenge to Nepal Police’s efforts to bring home many accused of human trafficking, said the official.  Women and girls are also being trafficked out of the country under the cloak of foreign employment, marriage and abroad study.

The 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report released by the US Department of State this week had said that Nepal was a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking.

“Nepal does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, although it is making significant efforts to do so,” an excerpt of the report read.