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Govt not able to stop Nepalese human trafficking: Religious leader
The Nepalese government lacks the power to stop human trafficking in the country, which has increased since two major earthquakes, said a Nepalese religious leader on Wednesday
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he Nepalese government lacks the power to stop human trafficking in the country, which has increased since two major earthquakes, said a Nepalese religious leader on Wednesday.
Nepal's National Council of Churches general secretary KB Rokaya said that human trafficking was a long-standing problem in Nepal, yet it had increased since the major earthquakes that left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
"The victims are mostly women and children who are promised food and schooling by the perpetrators," he claimed.
About Nepalese 13,000 women and children were victims of trafficking to other countries in 2014, a 60 percent increase from the previous year, according to data from the Nepal National Commission for Human Rights (NCRH)
'The government of Nepal is very weak, it has not been able to stop human trafficking. Sometimes politicians are also involved,' Rokaya told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a press conference on Wednesday.
He said human trafficking was a problem in the Asian region and countries should have people-to-people dialogue and cooperation to resolve the issue.
The Nepalese government recently banned children from traveling without parents or approved guardians to deter human traffickers who target families who lost their homes after the earthquakes hit on April 25 and May 12.
The measure was taken after authorities found dozens of children from earthquake-struck areas traveling with strangers under what was seen as suspicious circumstances. (fsu)(++++)
