With two major earthquakes striking Nepal within a short time and people still trying to recover from the disaster, the local NGOs and their campaigners have a bigger fear to look upto. With hundreds of people abandoned due to the earthquake, human traffickers are now eying the women and younger girls, luring them into the sex trade.

Based on an estimate made by the UN, as high as 12,000 to 15,000 girls from the country are trafficked every year into the various Asian countries. This time, due to the earthquake and the miserable plight of the people, the traffickers are targeting the earthquake refugee camps, home to thousands of women and children affected by the earthquake.

The Trap

Posed as recruiters offering jobs (non-existent) to the younger women and girls, the traffickers trap them by promising good pays and then forcing them into the sex trade. A large number of people claiming themselves to be rich businessmen offer to help the girls with work and also proposing marriage offers to them in the various cities, only later forcing them into the sex trade.

Witnesses

Bhuwan Ribhu from the Bachpan Bachao Andolan stated that their teams in Bhaktapur, Gorkha and Kathmandu have witnessed people going to these refugee camps and promising job offers to the young children and the adolescent girls. He fears that these unknown people will then force the innocent kids and girls into the sex trade.

However, human trafficking is not a new issue in Nepal. The percentage of women and children trafficked last year had increased to about 60%. With these natural calamities, human trafficking becomes lot easier than the usual circumstances.

The earthquake has left almost 8,000 dead and more than 20,000 injured, all displaced into the various refugee camps. This is the main reason of fear for the NGOs and the Local Campaigners who wish to protect the precious life and innocence of every soul living in the Nepalese Earthquake refugee camps.

Image Courtesy: www.actionaid.org.uk