Roshan Sedhai

The Embassy of Nepal in Saudi Arabia prepared a detailed portfolio of around 130 agents based on the details provided given by some 650 victimised women, who were illegally smuggled into the Islamic kingdom. The victims, according to Nepal’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Udaya Raj Pandey, were rescued within the past 15 months after they took refuge at the embassy suffering physical, mental and economic exploitation at the hands of employers.

Some of the victims returned back with babies, while the others were pregnant. The mission had strongly asked the authorities concerned to book the agents following an unprecedented increase in the illegal inflow of women through Indian and Bangladeshi airports. But none of the stakeholders has initiated any process to punish the ‘human traffickers’.

Buddhi Bahadur Khadka, the spokesperson of the Labour Ministry, said the list of agents, which the stakeholders haven’t disclosed citing security concerns, had been forwarded to the Home ministry long ago. Home officials, however, said there has been no progress so far.

In sharp contrast to this case, the District Court of Sindupalchowk last July sentenced Bajir Singh Tamang to 170 years of jail and imposed a fine of Rs 1.3 million on him for trafficking six girls to Indian brothels. These are only a few examples of hundreds of human trafficking cases that have surpassed traditional boundaries and the existing laws. Oversight of the government to associate trafficking with flesh trade has deprived hundreds of victims of foreign employment. 

Experts claim a lack of clear demarcation between trafficking and foreign employment has given traffickers an opportunity to traffic women under the disguise of foreign employment by exploiting legal loopholes.  According to Ganesh Gurung, a foreign employment expert, police have been refusing to admit cases of foreign employment, while the Department of Foreign Employment insists such matters are related to foreign employment. 

“Although the current law on trafficking is strong, it failed to foresee the nexus with foreign employment or the thin boundary between the two crimes,” said Gurung. The court has booked a few overseas employment agencies under Trafficking Act even if the cases are related to foreign employment, he said. Experts also said that the manpower agencies and agents have started trafficking women acquiring individual work permits making these cases precedents. This is a new trick of trafficking without showing any involvement in the eye of the law, they said.

Lawyers said the current human trafficking law can produce desired outcomes if implemented strongly, but admit the nexus between trafficking and foreign employment has emerged as a huge challenge. “The current law has incorporated the provision of adequate punishment for the perpetrator of human trafficking. Besides having provisions of extradition, compensation, shelter home and outside jurisdiction, the law has handed massive power to the chief district officer,” said Basanta Basnet, a lawyer.  As per the existing law, the perpetrator of human trafficking can get up to 15 years of imprisonment and or half for attempted trafficking. There is also a similar provision of punishment for smugglers, middlemen and buyers. Under the Foreign Employment Act, the perpetrator will only get seven years of imprisonment. Realising his gap, the DoFE has started referring cases of foreign employment to the Central Investigation Bureau.

Published on: 12 August 2013 | The Kathmandu Post