On January 10, 2023, after receiving information that three girls under the age of 18 from Surkhet and Kohalpur were being forced into prostitution at a brothel (a house operating a sex business) on GB Road in New Delhi, the capital of India, a team from Maiti Nepal arrived there with local security personnel. A plan was made to coordinate with the Delhi Police to conduct a raid and rescue the girls. Employees from the Delhi Women's Commission were also deployed in the team.

Initially, due to the non-cooperation of the Delhi Police, the Maiti Nepal team, which had gone to rescue the girls, was held hostage in the brothel for about three hours that day. The police and the Women's Commission team backed away. The brothel operator created fake documents stating that two of the three girls under 18 were of age. The other one was also lured and made to attack the rescue team.

In the aftermath of the police and Women's Commission team retreat, Maheshwari Bhatta, the head of Maiti Nepal's rescue team in Delhi, was held hostage in the brothel for three hours. She still recalls being safely extracted only after the local police arrived with reinforcements. According to her, the girls were successfully rescued only after a second, well-planned raid.

Meena (name changed), a 14-year-old from Bagmati Province, was sold by her own aunt. She was taken to a brothel in Budhwar Peth, Pune, Maharashtra. After her mother's death, her father remarried, leaving Meena and her siblings destitute. Taking advantage of this situation, her aunt took her to a brothel in Pune.

However, by a stroke of luck, she was rescued on the second day of her arrival at the brothel. She has now become self-employed after learning vocational skills. Bhatta, who was involved in the rescue, says that her rescue was facilitated by the timely receipt of information. According to her, had the rescue been delayed even slightly, her situation could have been similar to that of the girls from Surkhet and Kohalpur. She was also rescued from Pune and brought to Nepal by Bhatta's team from Maiti Nepal with the help of the local police.

The aforementioned two incidents easily demonstrate the immense difficulties involved in rescuing victims of trafficking and transportation. They illustrate the extreme risk involved in rescuing those trafficked to various Indian cities for sexual and labor exploitation. In fact, rescue operations often require risking one's own life. Obtaining cooperation from security personnel in the relevant areas during rescue operations is also extremely challenging.

The Human Trafficking and Transportation (Control) Act, 2064, stipulates that the government must arrange rescue operations. Chapter 3 of the Act deals with rescue, rehabilitation and reunification. Section 12 of the Act, which outlines rescue-related activities, states, "If any Nepali citizen has been sold abroad, the Government of Nepal shall arrange for their rescue."

The Human Trafficking and Transportation (Control) Regulations, 2065, which were enacted in accordance with the Act, mandate the formation of a national committee headed by the Secretary of the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare. This committee is assigned the responsibility of 'rescuing victims stranded abroad and repatriating them with their consent.'

Not only this, the Act also provides for legal assistance to ensure justice, as well as arrangements for placing victims in rehabilitation centers and facilitating family reunification and reintegration.

The responsibility for rescuing victims of trafficking and transportation lies with the Government of Nepal. However, not only in the aforementioned cases in Delhi and Pune, but also in numerous other such incidents, the government has remained largely unresponsive. The government appears to neglect not only rescue operations but also matters of providing justice to victims, their rehabilitation and family reunification.

"The Act has provisions, it has made everyone aware, but the implementation aspect is non-existent," said Bhatta, the coordinator of Maiti Nepal, Kanchanpur, who has been involved in rescuing trafficking victims for a long time. "If the government had carried out rescue work according to the Act, our team would not have had to be held hostage in the Delhi brothel."

Under her leadership, the Maiti Nepal team had gone to a brothel on GB Road in Delhi to rescue three girls. Bhatta still remembers that as soon as they arrived, the girls and women started undressing, cutting themselves with blades, and engaging in obscene behavior. Bhatta believes that such activities, like cutting themselves with blades and undressing, might have been done to put undue pressure on the rescue team.

Not only that, some women even pulled Bhatta's mask off. In the process of forcefully pulling the mask, her ear was also scratched. The women's nails scratched her face, causing wounds. She had worked at Maiti Nepal's rescue center in Delhi for two years. She also used to travel from Mahendranagar to various places in India for rescue operations.

Bhatta says that the problem is that even though the law has been enacted, the procedures have not been developed, and there is no agreement with India regarding rescue operations. "Rescues are currently being carried out based on an agreement with Bangladesh," Bhatta says. "Besides that, it also depends on how you can facilitate the process."

Meena, who was rescued from Pune, says that it is necessary to ascertain whether she can reside with her family after the rescue. If not, the government itself should arrange for suitable accommodation. "Along with rescue, it is also essential to focus on rehabilitation," Meena said, "The government has not shown much interest in providing justice to the victims either."

Meena's parents used to run a small business in Kathmandu. Her mother went to Saudi Arabia for foreign employment and remarried there. Her father also returned to the village and remarried. The responsibility of looking after her two younger brothers in Kathmandu fell on Meena. When it became difficult, she returned home. After that, her aunt lured her and took her all the way to Pune.

India is being used as a destination and transit point for human trafficking and transportation. Women and girls are being lured to India and other foreign countries. "They are also taken with the intention of being sent elsewhere from Delhi itself," said former Ambassador to India, Nilambar Acharya. "The problem is not so much about rescue, but rather the punishment of the culprits involved." He pointed out that although the government is supposed to rescue Nepali citizens who have been trafficked abroad, there are various problems in doing so.

Acharya said that many people who were trafficked were rescued during his tenure in Delhi. Former Ambassador Acharya stated that those who wanted to go to third countries illegally were rescued from Delhi and sent back home. "The main thing is that those who commit wrongdoing should be punished," he said, "What is the source of the smuggling? It needs to be investigated. There are some problems in our prosecution process." He claimed that the individuals involved in trafficking are not just smugglers but powerful people, which is why they are not being punished.

Due to the government's failure to rescue as stipulated in the Act and its lack of interest in judicial rehabilitation, related cases often fail. Victim testimonies frequently turn hostile, leading to case failures, because family members are often involved in trafficking.

"Even though there are provisions in the Act, there are problems with rescue operations. Issues arise due to the lack of mechanisms and safe houses as prescribed," said former Ambassador to China, Leela Mani Paudyal. "It is difficult to rescue people abroad because there are no corresponding mechanisms there."

During his tenure as ambassador to China from 2016 to 2019, he facilitated the rescue of a woman who had gone to China to marry a Chinese citizen and 13 people who were stranded in China for three months under the pretext of being taken to Japan.

The woman was rescued after receiving information about her being forced into a sham marriage and sexually exploited. Similarly, Paudyal recalled that those who were stranded in China for three months under the pretext of being sent to Japan came to the embassy on their own. "There is no such mechanism in the embassy, and sometimes we receive false information," Paudyal said, "We were also caught up in one false piece of information, but we found out everything in time."

In the last five years, 719 cases of human trafficking and transportation have been registered within Nepal. In these cases, 1,009 people (945 women and 64 men) were trafficked. During the same period, 1,113 people (713 women, 95 men, 24 boys, and 280 girls) were rescued, according to the Nepal Police Headquarters.

In the five-year period, police arrested 285 women and 611 men on charges of involvement in human trafficking and transportation. The police have also stated that 365 people were rescued from various countries during this period.

"Regarding foreign countries, there are some problems in rescuing trafficking victims," said Deputy Inspector General of Police Dinesh Kumar Acharya, spokesperson for the Nepal Police. "If there were police attachés in the embassies for the rescue of trafficking victims abroad, it would be easier for coordination and facilitation."

According to him, the police are currently coordinating and conducting rescue operations by communicating through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He said that there are problems with coordination and facilitation from the security agencies of the respective countries when conducting rescues in this way. There is also no separate mechanism for rescue within the country.

"The government made the law, but it failed to create a corresponding mechanism for its implementation," said Sumitra Karki, who has been practicing law for two decades. "A corresponding mechanism is necessary for rescue operations from various countries." According to her, without arrangements like a special team and safe houses for rescue, the implementation of the law appears to be complex. Karki has been handling human trafficking and transportation cases for a long time.

Karki says that the government mechanism appears weak in ensuring justice and rehabilitation after rescue. She said that many cases she has handled have failed due to this. She shared her experience that most cases fail because family members are involved in the incidents and the victims turn hostile.

"If the government takes the initiative, rescue operations are not very difficult," said Dr. Surya Nath Mishra, who, as an ambassador to Qatar for four years, rescued many Nepali workers. "Rescue is much easier now."

Dr. Mishra, who served as ambassador to Qatar from 2007 to 2011, said that rescue was very difficult at that time. He has experience that rescuing was very difficult because the employer companies kept the Nepali workers' passports and the companies had to issue the exit permit.

According to Mishra, at that time, Nepalis were taken to Gulf countries from Delhi and Mumbai in India by showing various enticements. There was a compulsion to work in a different company than the one on the visa. They did not get the promised work and wages. After that, the workers would reach the embassy.

However, there were significant problems because the employers kept the passports. He says that they brought back many Nepali workers by obtaining exit permits from the Labor Court by producing documents from the workers' homes stating that family members were sick.

Although the Act does not specify the role of local and provincial governments in rescuing citizens trafficked abroad, it does grant them the authority to operate rehabilitation centers for rescued citizens.

However, local and provincial governments have not been able to work on that either. "We don't have a rehabilitation center. In the past, a rehabilitation center was operated with the help of a non-governmental organization in the same area where a COVID hospital was running," said Ram Datta Bhatta, Chief Administrative Officer of Bedkot Municipality, Kanchanpur. "Now it is closed because no one is coming, and the organization's program has also ended."

According to Dipendra Singh Bista, Section Officer and Information Officer at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law of the Sudurpashchim Provincial Government, there are no reported cases of human trafficking and transportation in the province. "Even if complaints are received, it is difficult to rescue them because we do not have police," Bista said. "If such a complaint comes, we have to coordinate with the police to proceed."

He informed that citizen assistance desks have been established at Gaddachauki in Kanchanpur and Gauriphanta in Kailali to provide awareness and assistance. Bista said that the citizen assistance desks are working on arrangements to help those stranded on the way back from India to reach their homes, as well as awareness campaigns to protect them from potential risks.

(This investigative report was prepared through the NIMJN fellowship supported by the Australian Aid. All rights reserved with the author and publisher.)

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