Roshan Sedhai

Cadres of the CPN-Maoist have rescued seven girls from the snatches of human traffickers from a rented room in Balaju on Monday. The girls were transported to Lalitpur Police Range upon the latter’s request, who then handed them, and an alleged trafficker, over to the Metropolitan Police Circle, Balaju for further investigation.

According to DSP Rajesh Bastola of the Balaju police circle, the rescued girls are aged 18 to 24 and include four girls from Dharan and one each from Kaski, Khotang, Bardiya and Banke. Police have also arrested one Chandra Bahadur Khatrifor alleged trafficking.  

The traffickers had held the girls in a rented room in Hile Tol of Manamaiju for the past four months on promises of sending them to the Gulf for work. The victims complained that they went through severe physical and sexual abuse in the last seven months.

“The girls were brought from villages and placed in a rented room. As the traffickers delayed sending them abroad and did not return their passports, they grew suspicious,” said Bastola.

“They said they were sexually abused. However, one of the girls managed to call someone she knew and asked for help. This man took the help of CPN-Maoist cadres and rescued the girls.”
SP Basanta Panta of the Lalitpur Police Range said that the traffickers had prevented the girls from going to the police by filling their heads with lies and rumours.

“The girls were threatened that the police would punish them on suspicions of being prostitutes. So after they were convinced that they were not going to be sent abroad, they asked for help from the Maoists,” said Panta.

Police have initiated an investigation into the matter and have been interrogating the victims and the alleged trafficker.

Cases of fraudulent manpower agents and human traffickers luring young girls into trafficking situations have shot up after the government imposed an age restriction on women going abroad for work.

The Cabinet has restricted women below 30 years of age from going abroad on a domestic worker visa.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CIB) and the Metropolitan Police records show that around 100 women have been rescued in the last one year.

CIB officials claim that education consultancies, travel agents and transnational agents are smuggling women migrant workers to the Middle East, exposing them to possible abuse.

Published on: 28 September 2012 |The Kathmandu Post