Last week, after being tipped off by an Indian NGO, two Nepali women who were held captive and repeatedly raped by a Saudi diplomat in Delhi were rescued by the Indian police. The victims have reported that four months ago, they were taken to Delhi by a woman trafficker in Nepal who assured them of good jobs in Saudi Arabia. But they were instead sold to an Indian agent and then to the Saudi diplomat as household maids. Such incidents of Nepali women being lured by traffickers in the hope of good jobs but instead falling prey to abuse are not new. A similar story had been reported last month when Binita Rai, who returned from Syria, revealed that she was abused by her employers exposing the racket between human traffickers in Nepal and Syrian agents, who had payed the latter $ 55,000 for 21 Nepali girls.

According to UN estimates, every year about 10,000 to 15,000 women and children are trafficked from Nepal. The main culprits in such scenarios are the agents who pledge good jobs and handsome salaries to women, and then leave them in an insecure job market. In many instances, the women are pushed into manual labour  and in the worst case scenarios are duped into flesh trade when they reach their work destination—mostly Gulf countries, with African countries becoming the new hub. Human trafficking has been a major concern for the government over the years and especially after the earthquake. Even though the concerned authorities have been on a high alert since the April quake, it has been reported that 539 women have gone missing from the relief camps and the quake-affected districts. Only last month, Indian police in Delhi rescued 27 women from the most-affected districts. The women were being trafficked to Dubai and none of them knew the exact job they would be doing there.

Therefore, although the government has been making efforts to curb human trafficking, it still needs to be more vigilant. The concerned government authorities such as the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare and the Nepal Police, should coordinate with I/NGOs working in this sector and make a combined effort to tackle this menace. And as the women from the poor families belonging to rural areas are easy targets for the traffickers, the government should conduct campaigns to make people aware about trafficking. For now, they should start with the quake-affected districts. Furthermore, as traffickers in Nepal work in tandemwith Indian agents and as most of the trafficking takes place via India, it is crucial that the Nepal Police and Indian police work together to fight this crime and increase caution near the border areas. As for the recent case in Delhi, the government needs to take up the issue with the Saudi ambassador as well as the Saudi government at the earliest.