LOCAL NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Serious efforts needed to check women trafficking

By A Staff Reporter

KATHMANDU, Jan. 30: Nepal has to take more effective and sustained steps to fight trafficking of women and children if it is to get the continued US support.

"Nepal must make serious efforts to meet the minimum standards set by the US Government to deal with the problem of trafficking in persons," R. David Harden, Regional Legal Advisor for South Asia based at the US Embassy in Dhaka, told a press conference here today.

Harden said that the countries receiving assistance from US for fighting trafficking are required to do much more in that area.

Highlighting the provisions of the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act 2000, he said the Act has seven indicators that measure the efforts of the concerned countries. They include prosecution of traffickers, protection of victims, prevention, international cooperation, extradition, monitoring, and prosecution of public officials helping traffickers.

A US report on trafficking in persons was released on June 5, 2002, has listed 53 countries, including Nepal, in the Second Tier. According to him, these countries are making efforts but they are unable to achieve the minimum standards. The First Tier and the Third one have 18 and 19 countries respectively. The countries in the First Tier have already met the minimum standards and the countries in the Third Tier are not serious about the trafficking issue.

"The US Government terminates its non-humanitarian and non-trade assistance for the countries in the third category," he said. Another report will be released in June this year.

The US has been working together with Nepal to fight trafficking in persons since 1997. Sarah Welbourne of US Embassy, Kathmandu said the US Government has supported Nepal in strengthening laws to combat trafficking. She said it has allocated approximately US$ 1.5 million for various ongoing anti-trafficking activities - preventing trafficking, rescuing and rehabilitating the victims.
Shedding light on the anti-trafficking programmes launched by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Madhuri Singh, Development Programme Specialist with the USAID, said that it is working through The Asia Foundation and World Education in Dhading, Chitwan, Nawalparasi, Banke and Dhanusha districts.

She said the USAID is supporting the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare for conducting a baseline survey to find out Nepal's present situation of human trafficking.

Human trafficking is one the major crimes in the world. The situation is alarming in South Asia. An estimated 5,000-7,000 Nepalese women and children are trafficked to India every year. The number of Nepalese women and girls involved in the sex trade in India ranges between 40,000 to 200,000.
A UN statistics shows that more than 200,000 women and children are trafficked in Southeast Asia every year, out of at least 700,000 trafficking victims worldwide. Each year, about 50,000 women and children are trafficked to the United States from different parts of the globe.

Other Stories