8 ways to stop human trafficking in Nepal

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Eight ways to help stop human trafficking in Nepal

By Beulah Devaney

15.05.13-nepal-women-590.jpg

There is a big possibility of human trafficking of Nepalese women and children after the earthquakes. (DFID under a Creative Commons Licence)

There has been a second earthquake in Nepal, only weeks after the Gorkha Earthquake killed more than 8,000 people and injured 18,000. This time, the earthquake was 7.3 on the Richter scale, and had 6 aftershocks. At least another 900 people have been injured. Charities are asking for more money, and there are many stories in the world’s media about the best charities to give to. But there is not much practical information about how to help stop human trafficking. This is a bigger problem now for thousands of girls and young women, after the earthquakes. So here are 8 ways to help stop human trafficking, in Nepal and around the world:

1. Organise a small, regular donation, not one big donation. After natural disasters, people want to give money to victims – but the people in Nepal will feel the effects of the earthquakes a long time after the money finishes. Now people need to survive. And it may take weeks or even months to find out all the effects. Then, the world and charities will be looking at something else. And traffickers will be trying to get very poor families to sell their children or make their women prostitutes. If you make a small, regular, donation, this can help stop this.

2. If you can give money, look at where your money is going. See New Internationalist December 2014 issue about the history of NGOs. They are not always efficient in giving out money. You can see how charities use the money on websites like Charity Navigator.

3. Give money to anti-human trafficking charities already working in Nepal. Many charities have experience working with trafficked women and children. But if you donate to a charity already working in Nepal you know that they have local knowledge and skills. Dr Rajendra Gautam started 3 Angels Nepal. It is also fighting to close the open borders between India and Nepal. This leads us to...

4. Tell the Indian government to improve security along the India-Nepal border. Most of the women and children trafficked out of Nepal will be taken to India. If no-one controls this, there will probably be many many more. It’s not easy to control a 1,600-kilometre border (and there are not so many people working on borders because of the earthquake problems) but many charities working in the area are already trying to get the Indian government to do more.

5. Make sure anti-trafficking is included in future disaster plans. In 2014 The US Department of State said that Nepal is not meeting the Trafficking Victims Protection Act minimum standards for protecting people from trafficking. Nepal will probably have more earthquakes. We need to start fighting now, when people are thinking about Nepal, to protect people in future disaster plans.

6. Make sure women and girls get sanitary products for women and girls. The United Nations Population Fund says that at least 2 million girls and women of reproductive age were affected by the first Nepalese earthquake. After a disaster, not many people think about sanitary products. But they are very important if we want to make sure that women can help with the relief work. Traffickers often offer women sanitary products to build a relationship, because they know they need them. For more information: Global Fund for Women.

7. Look very carefully when people try to adopt children who have lost their parents. After the first earthquake in Nepal the Israeli government took 26 babies who had been recently born to Nepalese mothers but left the mothers in Nepal. Many people are shocked at this. There are legal and ethical problems. People should not adopt or take children from a disaster area. Traffickers often use fake adoption agencies to sell children. If there are many people in the West who want to adopt the children, this will make it normal to take children from Nepal.

8. Continue to tell people about it. When the world looks at the next problem, then the trafficking will start. We need people to stay interested. So keep the interest in your local community. Raise money at your school or office and support campaigns in the country (eg. better border control and control of adoption procedures). Tiny Hands, an anti-trafficking charity working in Nepal, has more suggestions for how people can get people interested and raise money.

NOW READ THE ORIGINAL: http://newint.org/blog/2015/05/13/stop-human-trafficking/ (This article has been simplified so the words, text structure and quotes may have been changed).