Miscellaneous
Human trafficking via Delhi-Colombo route rife
Twenty-eight-year-old Pooja of Banke district was arrested at the Delhi International Airport on January 11.Devendra Bhattarai
Twenty-eight-year-old Pooja of Banke district was arrested at the Delhi International Airport on January 11.
She was about to board a flight to Colombo. The Indian Immigration detained Pooja after finding fake stamps on her passport. Her documents were also not genuine. She is in Tihar Jail in India now.
Pooja is a case in point. New Delhi-Colombo has become a “favoured route” for human traffickers of late.
It is learnt that traffickers in the past month have sent 16 Nepali women to the Gulf using Kathmandu-Delhi-Colombo route. Last week, five women were held at the airport in Kathmandu. They also were to fly to Colombo via New Delhi. Counsellor SSP Yadav Khanal at the Nepali Embassy in Delhi said human traffickers are using various methods to “send” women to Gulf countries.
“We have been informed that traffickers are sending women to Dhaka or Colombo from Indian airports before trafficking them to destination countries,” he said, informing that the Indian immigration authorities cannot stop migrant workers from going abroad after receiving “no objection letter” from the Embassy of Nepal in New Delhi.
Balkrishna Pandey of Maiti India claimed that all the stamps used on Pooja’s passport were bogus. “Traffickers have been using the Colombo route to smuggle Nepali women to Gulf countries,” said Pandey.
Patiala House Court in New Delhi sent Pooja to judicial custody for at least two months. In her statement, Pooja said she was headed to work as a migrant so that she could earn some money for the treatment of her mother, a cancer patient. Pooja herself is mother of four.
The Foreign Employment Department had issued labour permit to Pooja on November 5. In the fake sticker on her passport, she was categorised as a “cleaner” in Oman. “We have started the legal process to secure Pooja’s release,” said Pandey.