Human trafficking in Nepal

What is human trafficking?

One of the most used definition of Trafficking in Persons is in the Protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children,
supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime: “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs” "Child" means any person under eighteen years of age.The Nepali Human Trafficking and Transportation (Control) Act, 2064 considers as Human Trafficking and Transportation:

(1) If anyone commits any of the following acts, that shall be deemed to have committed human trafficking:

(a) To sell or purchase a person for any purpose,
(b) To use someone into prostitution, with or without any
benefit,
(c) To extract human organ except otherwise determined
by law,
(d) To go for in prostitution.

(2) If anyone commits any of the following acts that
shall be deemed to have committed human
transportation:

(a) To take a person out of the country for the purpose of buying and selling,
(b) To take anyone from his /her home, place of residence or from a person by any means such as enticement, inducement, misinformation, forgery, tricks, coercion,
abduction, hostage, allurement, influence, threat, abuse of power and by means of inducement, fear, threat or coercion to the guardian or custodian and keep him/her
into ones custody or take to any place within Nepal or
abroad or handover him/her to somebody else for the purpose of prostitution and exploitation.

What is the legal framework to 

protect children and women from trafficking in Nepal?

International legal framework Nepal has ratified several international instruments including the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of
Child Labour, ILO Forced Labour Convention No.29 to combat trafficking and forced labour and CRC Optional Protocol on the Sale of  Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography. However, the country has not ratified the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children. South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) legal framework
SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution. Domestic legal frameworkIn domestic legislation, the key legislation includes the Human Trafficking and Transportation Control Act (HTTCA), the
Human Trafficking and Transportation (Control) Regulation and National Plan.

Why are children in Nepal particularly vulnerable to trafficking after the earthquake?

In a less secure environment, such as after an earthquake, there is a risk that trafficking of children and women will increase. Specifically, children who have
been separated from their families—either as a direct result of the earthquake, or because families feel they can no longer care for their children—are particularly
vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation. Furthermore, due to increased difficulties in livelihood in Nepal, many women and men seek employment opportunities abroad. Some of them might end of being trafficked at some point (before or after going abroad).

What are the causes of trafficking?

Child trafficking is a complex issue and some of the key determinants of trafficking include poverty, loss of parents, lack of awareness among the most vulnerable segments of the population, low levels of education, gender discrimination, rapid urbanization, false promises and beliefs and lack of employment opportunities.

Where Nepalese children and women are
mostly trafficked to?

Nepalese children and women are trafficked both inside the country mostly from rural to urban areas as well as outside the country, mainly to India and increasingly to Gulf countries.

For what purpose are Nepalese children
and women trafficked? 

According to different sources of information, children are trafficked mainly for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation, bonded labour, worst forms of child
labour (working in mines, domestic servants, working in circus), forced marriage and organ removal. Over the past few years, the expansion of the local sex industry has resulted in a rapid growth in the trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation.

What are the recent studies and statistics on trafficking in Nepal?

There is a lack of recent and reliable statistical information on the magnitude of trafficking in Nepal. It is believed that the existing data does not represent well
the magnitude of the problem and that numbers are likely to be much higher.Research suggests for example that, annually, approximately 12,000 children are trafficked to India, mainly for the purpose of sexual exploitation (ILO/CWIN, 2001). Furthermore, an estimated 11,000-13,000 girls and women are working in the “night entertainment industry” in Kathmandu Valley alone The majority are children, some as young as 8 or 9 years of age (TdH, 2010).According to the National Human Rights Commission report, the estimated number of people trafficked or attempted to be trafficked in 2012/13, was 29,000 (NHRC, 2014). The UNODC suggests that in Nepal during 2007-2009, out of detected victims of trafficking, 36 % were children (33 % girls, 3 % boys) and respectively 64 % adults (women 53 %, men 11%) (UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, 2012).

What is the Government of Nepal doing to
prevent and respond to trafficking? 

The key Government agencies to combat trafficking include Secretariat to combat trafficking under the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, Women and Children Offices established in all 75 districts, District Committees on anti-trafficking in all 75 districts and other local committees, Nepal Police, Court, Attorney General’s Office and Embassies in other countries. The main programmes and services supported by the Government to prevent and combat trafficking include
awareness raising in the communities, expansion of the local committees andfunding eight rehabilitation centres (Kathmandu, Sindhupalchowk, Jhapa, Parsa, Rupandehi,
Chitwan, Banke and Kailali) for the victims of trafficking. After the earthquake, the Government of Nepal has increased its efforts to combat trafficking. UNICEF is supporting the establishment and/or strengthening of 84 police stations and checkpoints around the country, including the borders with India and China. This means that the police are for example checking the buses for suspicious passengers and are alert throughout the country.The Department of immigration is training all immigration officials (200 people) to equip them with skills and knowledge on trafficking (with UNICEF support). This training is expected to make the officials
more alert and aware of the trafficking issues. The Government has launched various awareness programmes on trafficking at national and local level
through mass media.The Government has increased its coordination mechanisms and efforts and organizing regular meetings among relevant stakeholders (including cluster system at national and local level, NGOs etc).After the earthquake for five months, the Government suspended inter-country adoption.The Government has issued many directives to the local government authorities alerting them on trafficking, for example children cannot be taken from one district to another, without proper legal documents or guardian.