Home Minister Lekhak for zero-tolerance against human trafficking

Patan (Lalitpur), July 30: Minister for Home Affairs Ramesh Lekhak asserted that there should be zero-tolerance against heinous global crime as human trafficking.     

Minister Lekhak said so at a special programme organized by Nepal Police's Anti Human Trafficking Bureau at the Staff College in Lalitpur today marking the World Day against Trafficking in Persons.     

Calling for cooperation from one and all to minimize this crime, Lekhak argued that the sole effort of police administration would not reduce the crime.     

He opined that local government, students and teachers should coordinate efforts to raise awareness against trafficking. "Human trafficking should be treated as a common enemy and thus be eliminated for it is globally considered as a heinous crime and its bad effects are not limited to a certain territory of the globe."     

He argued that human trafficking should be categorized as a crime of serious nature and pitched for the provision for remanding the alleged culprits in human trafficking for three months and taking forward the investigation process accordingly.     

According to him, global statistics showed that women and infants are most vulnerable group of people when it came to natural disasters.     

When it comes to human trafficking, a large portion of victims identified are women thus making them most vulnerable group of people to human trafficking. He attributed a number of reasons for this such as poverty, lack of education and awareness. He thus urged the local government to step up campaigns to raise public awareness and appealed with the media to disseminate awareness contents.     

Similarly, Home Secretary Eknath Aryal, noting that human trafficking was a global concern, interest and challenging, requested one and all to assists police to carry out investigation to prosecute the criminals by providing information based on facts, evidences and findings.     

Acting Attorney General Tek Bahadur Ghimire informed that the policy and law against human trafficking were issued during late Rana Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher JBR.     

 The same law was fine tuned over the period of time while Act was issued in 2064 BS and prosecution of the culprits and to justice delivery to the victims are being carrying out based on the Act.     

Inspector General of Police Basanta Bahadur Kunwar said that human trafficking was globally a serious crime against humanity.     

He called for cooperation from all quarters to prevent this crime.     

Likewise, Manjali Shakya Bajracharya, Deputy Mayor of Lalitpur Metropolitan City, pressed for door-to-door awareness drive against human trafficking. She also underscored the need to bring about transformative changes in the mindset of people to tackle this crime.(RSS)