After the deadly earthquake in Nepal, which has already killed more than 7,000 people, campaigners in the affected areas say that Nepal is in the process of being dealt another devastating blow.
According to those working in the area, especially in badly affected Kathmandu, tens of thousands of young women and children are being targeted for sex slavery.
The earthquake, which was rated 7.8 on the Richter scale, has caused the destruction of thousands of homes and possessions, leading to entire families being homeless. These conditions, according to the campaigners, create the perfect storm for sex traders to abduct and sell young women and children into sex work.
The women and girls targeted are displaced from their homes and families and are often injured, making them perfect targets for sex trade rings. There are also cases of families willing selling their daughters and wives into sex slavery in order to ‘save’ the rest of the family, accepting sums of money and believing that the women will be able to send money back to their families.
“The earthquake will definitely increase the risk of abuse,” said a local healthworker, “People here are now desperate and will take any chance. There are spotters in the villages who convince family members and local brokers who do the deal. We know who they are.”
There are even reports of sex traders masquerading as relief workers and volunteers, to lure women and abduct them.
“This is the time when the brokers go in the name of relief to kidnap or lure women. We are distributing assistance to make people aware that someone might come to lure them,” said Sunita Danuwar, director of an NGO in Kathmandu. “We are getting reports of [individuals] pretending to go for rescuing and looking at people.”
Senior aid workers also corroborate this, “There is nothing like an emergency when there is chaos for opportunities to … traffic more women. There is a great chance that everything that is bad happening in Nepal could scale up.”
Nepal, unfortunately, is no stranger to sex trafficking. The UN estimates that 12,000 to 15,000 girls and young women are abducted every year from Nepal. These young women are often under the age of 16, and are transported as far as South Africa and South Korea. However, the majority of the women abducted end up in Indian brothels, in one of the biggest sexual slavery industries in the world.
A young women who was freed from sexual slavery in Nepal told The Guardian of the horrific conditions she had to endure. During her time in a brothel in India, the woman has forced to have unprotected sex with between 20 and 30 men a day, seven days a week. As a result of this, she has contracted HIV and several other sexually transmitted diseases.
“I do not have nightmares about my time there. I have erased it from my memory,” said the 20-year-old.
“I am worried now for the other girls who might be taken away. They will need the money and be tempted if someone talks to them about a job. Then the same thing will happen to them as happened to me,” she said.
Both the UN and the US State Department have both confirmed they are attempting to deploy measures to protect women who may be targeted for sex slavery.
