444 women, girls from west Nepal go out of contact after reaching India, third countries

Some 444 women and girls who reached various nations from the western Nepal in connection to jobs have gone missing.

The data is based on the applications submitted at the Maiti Nepal, Nepalgunj chapter in 2022 with the requests for their search.

As said by chapter coordinator Keshab Koirala, in a year that the organisation received 693 applications for finding out the whereabouts of this many people and of them, 249 were found. Families and relatives of women and girls who lost contact with the families after reaching India and other third countries sought the organisation’s help to find their whereabouts.

Similarly, 529 women and girls who were perceived to be at a risky travel were turned back from the Jamunaha transit point along the Nepal-India border in Banke. During the interrogations, they were found to have left their home without family consultations, for employment or for a trip. Most of them were from Surkhet.

As Koirala believes, the use of social sites and lack of digital security have further fueled the issues of human trafficking and smuggling.