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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Nepal: Impoverished Nepalese girls tricked into prostitution
Source: IRIN Asia
May 9, 2007-

For the past three years, 25-year-old Sita Maskey has beenfighting a court battle in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, to punishalleged trafficker Rekha Karki, whom she says tricked her into forcedprostitution in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates."I am destroyed. I was hoping to help rid my family of poverty but all wasin vain," Maskey told IRIN, recounting her story of how she sold the familyfarmland and house to pay for the travel expenses and for the agent who hadconvinced her she could earn huge amounts as a baby-sitter in Dubai.Maskey trusted Karki who had come to visit her family in her remote Ledangvillage of Morang district, nearly 600km east of the capital, and told herabout job opportunities in Saudi Arabia - where she had already sent manygirls from several villages - as well as Sharjah and Dubai. Maskey saidthat, unknown to her, Karki had opened a number of brothels in rentedhouses in Dubai.Karki had lied to her that she was working for a shipping company in Dubai,where she could easily help find her a job. But Maskey said that once shereached Karki's flat in the city, she was tied up, beaten and threatenedwith death if she tried to escape.After nearly eight months of forced prostitution, Maskey managed to escapewith the help of an Indian illegal migrant worker. She went to seek helpfrom the Nepalese embassy but the officials initially told her that theycould not help her.Eventually, with the help of local police, the embassy officials helped toreturn her to Nepal but failed to take any action to find the trafficker.VulnerableMaskey's case is an example of how vulnerable Nepalese girls and womenstill are at the hands of traffickers, said local anti-traffickingactivists. They said trafficking has changed and the victims are now nolonger trafficked only to India's cities."We have several cases of women who were forced into prostitution incountries where the demand for labour is high," said activist BindraMaharjan from the Women's Rehabilitation Centre (WOREC), a local NGO thathas been helping to rehabilitate victims and assist in legal action againstthe traffickers.She said most of these victims come from impoverished families in ruralareas where there is little employment.To access the complete article, please visit
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