Trap Of Traffickers

Once there used to be a dire and inhuman time for humanity when people used to be traded as any other commodities in the market. The curse of slavery and slave trade is abolished by nations today but trafficking of human beings still continues in modified version. As if slave trade has come back to haunt the unsuspecting, vulnerable and ignorant lot, an ugly face of migration is making many people victims. Shattered dreams, lost money and end of precious lives are the fate of the new victims. The exaggerated fiction of making millionaires and the dream of happy new life are sold by the manpower agents and the ignorant victims fall in their trap and walk through the illegal trail in pursuit of wild dreams before the whole scheme ends up in disaster. Supplying manpower is a lucrative business in today's highly migratory trend and many in this business are defying state laws and regulations and cashing in on the craze of people going abroad in hope of earning millions. 

It seems that people are out to do anything, selling their land, house and other properties, for instance, to pay the sums asked by the manpower agents when they falsely pledge that the ultimate destination will be America or Europe. They take the money, snatch the passports and make the victims pass through the trails that are too dangerous. The victims die in the jungle, drown in boat sink, get stranded or arrested in foreign land. The new form of slave trade which is now called human trafficking, is afflicting the world and Nepal is not an exception. Despite the government advice to follow legal channels while choosing to go abroad for employment, many tend to believe the rosy story told by the agents, unaware that the worst is going to happen in their life. The victims include children sold to serve harsh works in circus, young women forced to work in brothel or strong and muscular men aspiring to work in factories, firms and farms. 

Going abroad for jobs through legal route is often lengthy as it calls for due procedural steps such as medical fitness, language ability, work related training and gaining legal knowledge about the destination country. The illegal agents promise people the impossible possibility of shortcut and use the illegal network which ends in disaster.  In this very context of rising cases of human trafficking on the pretext of foreign employment, the Nepali Embassy in South Africa has issued a travel advisory cautioning Nepali citizens. The notice of awareness has come in the wake of increased cases of Nepalis being stranded or even losing lives in the hands of human traffickers. It has been found that the illegal manpower agents take their victim clients to South Africa via various African or Indian cities and they get stranded en route. 

The traffickers sell the dream that it is much easier to get to America or European countries via South Africa. The Nepali Embassy in Pretoria says in its travel advisory that the trafficking agents make their victims pay millions in the hope of taking them to America or Europe. The illegal agents are found to be using New Delhi and Mumbai of India, the UAE and Qatar in Asia and Tanzania, Mozambique, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda and Congo in Africa as transit countries to take Nepali people to South Africa. The travel advisory says that the job seekers are forced to travel in very risky and extreme conditions and they are sometimes left stranded on the way. The advisory has urged people not to opt for the illegal channels to go abroad for employment.