Nepal has one of the highest rates of human trafficking in the world, the National Human Rights Commission in its 2016 report, estimated the number of trafficked women and children to be between 8000 to 9000 with 9000 to 9500 attempted to traffic between 2013 to 2014 and 2014 to 2015. (NHRC, 2016 p. ix).
The natural disaster of the earthquake in 2015 also had a negative impact on the rates of individuals trafficked. There is evidence of an increase in the rate of trafficking since the earthquake in 2015. It should be noted that the actual rates of sex trafficking victims from Nepal are unknown, this is partly due to the stigma associated with victims of sex trafficking and families not wanting to disclose their daughter was a victim of sex trafficking for fear of being shunned by the community (UNODC, 2007). This highlights the need for programs aimed at reducing the stigma associated with victims of human and sex trafficking.
Trafficking from Nepal is a multifaceted issue, with women, men and children trafficked for multiple purposes aside from the well-known sex worker trade. Research has also indicated that a large proportion the trafficking of individuals from Nepal is for the purposes of forced labor including in carpet factories, circus agencies and even for forced kidney donations.
While there are many non-government organizations operating in Nepal aimed at addressing the issue of human trafficking, a lot of these NGO’s lack proper monitoring and evaluation of their programs, face corruption or implement projects which are simply targeted at patrolling borders rather than a long-term preventative approach.
There is research which indicates some of the leading factors surrounding the susceptibility of individuals becoming victims of human trafficking include Mothers literacy, poverty, domestic violence, inequality and gender discrimination (UNODC, 2007).
Records by Nepal Police found that the majority of survivors of sex trafficking had little to no schooling, with low literacy levels. (NHRC, 2016).
In order to properly address this issue, NGO’s need to be made more accountable. Ultimately they should be implementing more long-term approaches which target the factors which make individuals susceptible to human trafficking. Money should be directed at research into the issue of human trafficking in Nepal, along with the monitoring and evaluation of programs run by NGO’s to determine the effectiveness of the programs which NGO’s are currently implementing.
Short term solutions to a long-term problem are futile and do little to help prevent brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters from becoming future victims of this atrocious industry.
Emily Balsarini
Criminologist
Human Trafficking Researcher
