KATHMANDU, AUGUST 8

Citing data received from Nepal Police, the National Human Rights Commission said there is nexus between foreign employment and migrant smuggling and trafficking.

"Although Nepal Police data do not allow one to examine the purpose of trafficking such as sexual exploitation, labour exploitation, organ trafficking and other,s and it also does not specify the destination / country of trafficking, majority of cross-border trafficking cases can be said to have occurred due to deception of the victims with promise of good employment. Data shows that in the fiscal 2019- 20, a total of 136 trafficking cases were been filed with Nepal Police while this number was only 14 in the fiscal 2020-21," said a report on the Situation of Migrant Workers recently released by the rights body, Given the past trends of the trafficking cases filed with Nepal Police, the number of trafficking cases registered in the fiscal 2020-21 was unusually low and if data are true, one can reasonably attribute the low number of cases to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in the country.

Overall, there were 478 trafficking victims recorded in fiscal years of 2019-20 and 2020-21. Among the victims, cross-border trafficking victims comprise 46 percent while the 54 percent were internal trafficking victims. Both male and female were victims of trafficking though nearly 96 per cent were females against only 4 per cent males. Similarly, child trafficking is also considerable given the fact that nearly four in 10 trafficking victims recorded with Nepal Police were children under 18 years.

According to the report, Nepal Police data also suggest the emerging nature of trafficking and human smuggling in the context of foreign employment. There have been lot of changes in the mode of trafficking in persons (TIP) and human smuggling. A few years ago, the destination for TIP was mainly to India and it wass mainly for the purpose of 'prostitution', while the nature of TIP has changed nowadays. Now not only women but also men are victims; and they are tafficked not only to India, but also across several countries in the world. It is not only for the purpose of 'prostitution' but also for labour exploitation.

On the basis of the smuggling cases dealt with by Human Trafficking and Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police in the fiscals 2019-20 and 2020-21, human smugglers use different routes to smuggle migrants to various countries. At least 13 countries have been reported as destination countries for smuggling. The dichotomy between so called developed and developing countries or rich or poor countries almost vanishes in the face of migrant smuggling from Nepal.

Migrant smuggling destination countries include not only Europe, North America and Australia, but also the Middle-East, Asia and African countries. Main routes to reach the destination countries are not the direct. Smugglers use different indirect routes. For example, in one case, it was found that at least 12 countries were used by the smuggler to transport a migrant to the US, and 11 countries in the case of transporting to Canada.

It is reported that migrant smuggling is very risky travel as well as costly for migrants. Migrants are made captive on the route, and they are looted by hooligans and they also risk dying while being transported, It is also costly because some of the migrants smuggled to US who were interrogated by Police in Nepal reported that they spent more than Rs 5.5 million to reach the US.

A version of this article appears in the print on August 9, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.