'Human trafficking and foreign employment acts need harmonization'

KATHMANDU, Aug 28: With the growing trend of human trafficking intersecting with foreign employment, stakeholders have stressed on the need of 'harmonizing' trafficking and foreign employment acts in order to ease the prosecution process.

Stating that trafficking has now drifted to foreign employment, they suggested that the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Labor and Employment should coordinate with each other to provide prompt justice to the victims.

Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW) Radhika Aryal said that most of the trafficking cases are related to foreign employment and there is a dire need of correlating the human trafficking and foreign employment acts.

"The traditional method of human trafficking was solely related with sex while the modern-day trafficking is linked with foreign employment," she said. "There is a need to incorporate trafficking and foreign employment acts so justice process becomes easier."

Joint Secretary Aryal added that there is no accurate data on human trafficking due to lack of coordination between the stakeholders working in this sector.

Speaking at an interaction program jointly organized by the MoWCSW and Maiti Nepal on Friday, advocate Tek Narayan Kuwar opined there are several challenges to bring the human traffickers to justice as most of such cases are related to foreign employment.

"The United Nations Trafficking in Person (TIP) protocol, 2000, has suggested that Nepal is facing problems in investigating the human trafficking cases due to lack of proper mechanisms," he said.

A data of International Labor Organization (ILO), 2001, suggests that 12,000 women and children are trafficked from Nepal every year. According to the Human Trafficking and Transportation Control Act, 2064, of Nepal, there is a provision of imprisonment of up to 20 years and penalty of Rs. 2 00,000 with compensation of Rs. 100,000 for the victims.

Presenting a paper, Director of Maiti Nepal Bishwo Ram Khadka said that young people are being trafficked to the Gulf countries by tampering photos or information. He added that most of the rescued people have real documents but the information is fake.

Participants suggested that employment generation and awareness is another important part to decrease cases of trafficking.