2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

these offices registered complaints and filed reports
of trafficking crimes before turning victims over
to NGOs for care. During the year, these offices
received 47 human trafficking cases, some involving
multiple victims, from NGOs and, occasionally,
from police. Police officers reportedly returned
victims to their homes. In May, a local NGO
opened the country’s first permanent shelter for
child trafficking victims, which was constructed on
land donated by the Moamba District government.
Prevention
The government’s prevention efforts remained
weak. Most anti-trafficking educational workshops
were run by NGOs with government participation.
During the year, law enforcement officials
publicized several trafficking cases and governmentowned
media outlets covered such stories.
NEPAL (Tier 2)
Nepal is a source country for men, women, and children
trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual
exploitation and involuntary servitude. Children
are trafficked internally and to India and the Middle
East for commercial sexual exploitation or forced
marriage, as well as to India and within the country
for involuntary servitude as child soldiers, domestic
servants, and circus entertainment or factory workers.
Nepalese women are trafficked to India and to
countries of the Middle East for commercial sexual
exploitation. They also migrate willingly — though
sometimes illegally — to Malaysia, Israel, South
Korea, the United States, Saudi Arabia, United Arab
Emirates, Qatar, and other Gulf states to work as
domestic servants, but some subsequently face
conditions of involuntary servitude such as withholding
of passports and other restrictions on movement,
non-payment of wages, threats, and physical
or sexual abuse. Despite the Government of Nepal’s
ban on traveling to Iraq for work, some Nepalese
who believe they are being offered jobs in Jordan or
Kuwait travel there, and then are later deceived and
trafficked into involuntary servitude in Iraq.
The Government of Nepal does not fully comply
with the minimum standards for the elimination of
trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts
to do so. Effective implementation of anti-trafficking
policies is hampered by political instability and
limited resources. The absence of local government
in rural areas as a result of the decade-long insurgency
has increased the risk of trafficking while
constraining the government’s efficiency. Despite
these limitations, Nepal maintained its efforts to
prosecute sex trafficking offenses and expanded
local Women’s Police Cells to 24 stations. The
government, however, was not able to adequately
fund or staff the Women’s Cells, limiting their effectiveness.
Nepal also did not demonstrate a concerted
effort to criminally prosecute and adequately
punish labor recruiters who use deceptive practices
to force workers into involuntary servitude abroad.
Prosecution
Nepal made significant efforts to prosecute cases
of trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation
this year, but made inadequate progress in prosecuting
and punishing trafficking for involuntary
servitude. Nepal does not prohibit all forms of
trafficking in persons, but prohibits slavery, the
selling of human beings, and forced prostitution
through its Human Trafficking Control Act of 1986.
Prescribed punishments under this law — 5 to 20
years’ imprisonment — are sufficiently stringent
and commensurate with those for other grave
crimes. Fraudulent or deceptive labor recruitment is
punishable by three to five years’ imprisonment or
a fine or both. From July 15, 2005 through July 14,
2006, Nepal filed a total of 393 sex trafficking cases
at the district, appellate and Supreme Court levels.
Of these cases, 87 were prosecuted to conviction, 60
persons were acquitted, and 246 cases are pending.
The government does not keep records on sentences
and fines, but NGO lawyers report that, in over half
of the cases the government prosecuted, traffickers
received the maximum prison sentence. Nepal did
not report any cases filed against corrupt government
officials who may have facilitated trafficking
by taking bribes at the India-Nepal border or engaging
in document fraud.
The government demonstrated only slight progress
in adequately punishing labor recruiters who use
deceptive recruitment practices to coerce Nepali
workers abroad for labor exploitation. This reporting
period, the government reported receiving
786 complaints against agencies and individual
recruiters, canceling licenses for 116 manpower
agencies, and ordering compensation to workers
totaling $450,000. However, Nepal did not report
any prison sentences imposed on agency owners
or employees found to be engaging in labor trafficking
through the use of deceptive or fraudulent
recruitment practices. Nepal should expand efforts
to vigorously investigate and adequately punish
recruitment agency owners and employees believed
to be involved in trafficking, and should improve
its law enforcement efforts against corrupt officials
facilitating trafficking.
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