Thursday, May 7, 2015
Nepal Earthquake leaves thousands of girls and women vulnerable to human sex traffickers
Tags : Sex_Traffickers_targeting_quake_victims_in_nepal
Thousands of girls and women who have survived the quake are now facing the another threat from human traffickers. Tens of thousands of girls are now being targeted and human traffickers are trying to lure the victim to brothels mostly in India.
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| Increasing trend of more Nepalese girls being lured to dance on bar and work as prostitute in Africa |
According to UN and local NGOs, around 12000 to 15000 girls are trafficked each year and taken overseas to India, South Korea and as far as to South Africa as well.
One of the local health workers Rashmita Shashtra quotes " 'People here are now desperate and will take any chance. "
'There are spotters in the villages who convince family members and local brokers who do the deal. We know who they are.'
Last month’s quake killed more than 3,000 people in Sindhupalchok, and left hundreds of thousands homeless.
Jason Burke, from the newspaper, also spoke to a woman called Sita, 20, who told how she was abducted from her home in Sindhupalchok, a village near Kathmandu last year.
She said she was forced to have unprotected sex with up to 30 a day, every day, for a year at a brothel in India.
She was rescued last year, was taken by an uncle “for a job” in India. Her parents, who are subsistence farmers and illiterate, believed assurances she would have a good job and be able to send back her wages.
The uncle who abducted Sita was murdered by a contract killer. Her parents remain unaware of exactly what happened to her, though her brothers have found out. They have now disowned her. Victims of sexual violence are frequently ostracised in south Asia, where they are seen as having brought shame on their community.
Sita lives in a secret shelter run by Shakti Samuha. She does not know what has happened to her parents in the earthquake. For many days, communications to her remote village were cut. When she managed to get a line through to a brother, he refused to acknowledge her. “He said he had no sister and I had called a wrong number,” Sita said.
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