A joint team of Delhi Commission for Women, KI Nepal and Indian police personnel rescued 16 Nepali women from a house in Munirka area of the Indian capital on Tuesday night.

When the rescue team reached the house after prolonged efforts, most of the trafficked women were found to be suffering from high fever and common cold. The women were taken hostage by the agents on the pretext of sending them to Iraq, Kuwait and the UAE.

The women are aged 20-35. They have been kept at a shelter of the Delhi Commission for Women following the rescue.

Commission’s Chairperson Swati Maliwal said the rescued women would be sent back to Nepal after completing the required procedures. She said the women were confined to two small rooms in a six-storey building in Munirka area and were being trafficked to Iraq and Kuwait. All the women were trafficked to Delhi via Sunauli on various dates—some a month ago, and while others two days ago.

The agents had taken away women’s passports before they reached Delhi, Swati Maliwal said. Anukala Magar, one of the rescued women, a native of Morang, said that the agents brought her to the house with assurance of a job in Iraq or Kuwait with a monthly salary of Rs 30,000.

The agent had taken Anukala and another woman to the Indira Gandhi International Airport a week ago to send them to Kuwait. The airport officials detained them as they were carrying fake ‘No Objection’ letters. They were, however, released after a few hours.

Though the Nepal government has banned women from working in the Gulf countries, human traffickers use various channels to traffic them into the banned countries, especially via India. The government had made it mandatory for Nepali women to acquire ‘No Objection’ letter from the Nepali Embassy in India before heading for the Gulf countries from the Indian cities.

“People are making fake ‘No Objection’ letters, the Nepal government should look into this issue seriously,” Maliwal said. When asked about fake ‘No Objection’ letters, Spokesperson for the Nepali Embassy in Delhi Hari Odari said, “The embassy has not issued any ‘No Objection’ letter to those willing to go to Gulf countries from India.”