Kathmandu, April 25

The National Human Rights Commission issued a national report of two fiscal years saying the massive earthquake of April 25, 2015 had greatly increased the vulnerability to trafficking especially of women and children.

Evidences confirm there is nexus of foreign labour migration and trafficking in persons (TIP), the NHRC said in its report.

The rights body said in its report that law enforcement was still not satisfactory; and surveillance and monitoring in the formal and informal institutions had been ineffective.

It said the government’s compliance on rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration of trafficked survivors was inadequate.

The NHRC report said 8,000 to 8,500 persons were trafficked in each of the fiscal years of 2013/14 and 2014/15.

The rights body said that on the bases of records of NGOs and police, attempts were made at trafficking was total of 9,000 to 9,500 persons.

The number of vulnerable persons intercepted has increased after the earthquake by at least 15 to 20 per cent before and after three months of the earthquake, the NHRC said in its release.

However, there was considerably far lower number of TIP cases registered with Nepal Police in FY 2013/14 and 2014/15 (185 and 181 cases, respectively).

According to NHRC report, records of Nepal Police reveal that an overwhelming majority of trafficked survivors (85 per cent) had either no schooling or they were just literates.

Majority of trafficked survivors comprised unmarried persons, added the report.

In majority of the cases, the NHRC said, the traffickers crossed the border with the victims during the day and used the main official Nepal-India and Nepal-Tibet border points as trafficking routes.

The rights body stated in the release that trafficking of girls to Korea and China for the purpose of marriage was a growing phenomenon in Nepal.

“It is estimated that there were at least 1,000 female migrants who went to South Korea through marriage in between 2005 and 2013 and about 300 are happily married while others are living in slave-like conditions,” the NHRC said in its release.

The rights body said there were evidences that the magnitude of TIP especially of women and children had increased after the earthquakes.

It said the risk of trafficking increased after the earthquake by at least 15 to 20 per cent.

“Records of Nepal Police indicate that a total of 1,233 women and children were reported to be missing during three months after the earthquake and the Nepal Police rescued 161 children from different Nepal-India border points in the same period,” the NHRC said.