Eleven Nepali women, who were taken to the Indian Capital on the pretext of sending them for foreign employment in Iraq and Kuwait, have been rescued. Two persons allegedly involved in the trafficking racket were detained for investigation.

 

As per a tip-off received by the crime branch of Indian Police a month ago, investigating officers raided an apartment in Basantakunja, Delhi, on Friday evening and rounded up two suspected traffickers and 11 women.

 

The Indian authorities have initiated a probe as Shanti Punarsthapana Griha, an ogranisation working against woman trafficking, provided inputs regarding the trafficking of Nepali women to various Gulf countries via New Delhi and Colombo, Sri Lanka.

 

Indian authorities have kept suspected traffickers Rajan Adhikari and Jivan Pun under surveillance. The rescued women were on Saturday taken to the Nepali Embassy to record statements and prepare necessary documents for their way back home. Ten of the rescued women are married, lured by false promises of jobs in Iraq and Kuwait. 

 

Bhumiraj Bhattarai, programme coordinator of the organisation, had sent a woman from Bardiya to war-torn Syria despite his assurance to send her to Iraq. The victim’s husband had urged him to rescue her from her difficult condition in Syria. Adhikari had set a condition for rescuing her: he needed two other women to be brought to Delhi if the man wanted his wife released. 

 

The man came to the contact of the organisaton and Indian authorities. The traffickers were detained as he approached them on the pretext of handing over the women. The Nepali embassy later provided them travel documents as their passports and other papers were back.

 

According to a 34-year-old woman who arrived in Delhi on Wednesday on her way abroad, five Nepali women were flown to Sri Lanka on that day. 

 

“Our agent said that about 40 women reach Iraq and Kuwait via Colombo every month,” she told the embassy. The woman hailing from Dhankuta added that she knew about her route only after she landed in Delhi. The agent had promised her “a decent job” in Kuwait.