Nepal Police has rescued 7,029 women and children from human traffickers at various border posts of the country over the last five years, a senior police official said here on Saturday.

Nepal Police Spokesperson and Senior Superintendent of Police Uttam Raj Subedi said the traffickers intended to take these women and children to India and China. Among the rescued, 3,896 are under 18 years of age and 3,133 are women.

The rescue areas include Jhapa, Ilam, Morang, Udaypur, Sankhuwasabha, Parsa, Sarlahi, Mohattari, Siraha, Chitwan, Makwanpur, Nuwakot, Sindhuli, Nawalparasi, Rupandehi, Kapilvastu, Gulmi, Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Jumla, Kailali and Kanchanpur.

Nepali women and girls are vulnerable to trafficking due to an open border system with India, Subedi said.

Nepal Police is trying its best to identify children and women at risk of trafficking and rescue them by establishing a separate centre.

The rehabilitation centres for victims of human trafficking are currently functioning in Jhapa, Kathmandu, Sindhupalchowk, Parsa, Chitwan, Kailali and Banke districts.

Women’s safety organization Samaj Utthan Mahila Manch Vice Chair Januka Dhakal said lack of public awareness and poverty are among the major factors that expose women and girls to the risk of human trafficking.

Women and girls from socially and economically challenged backgrounds are easy targets of human traffickers and touts who lure them with promises of lucrative jobs and a better life. They persuade potential victims to travel with them. In some cases, the traffickers arrange fake marriages because it is relatively easy to cheat helpless families.

Young girls and women are trafficked mainly to force them into prostitution, sex slavery, forced labour and organ extractions. Traffickers often force victims to work as house cleaners, dancers and waitresses in seedy bars, restaurants and sleaze rackets.

According to Dhakal, human trafficking racketeers indulge in such crimes

under political patronage and protection.

Nepal’s anti-trafficking law stipulates 20-year jail sentence and imposing fines up to Rs 200,000 against those guilty and convicted of human trafficking.

Nepal Police plans to establish a separate Human Trafficking Bureau. The Home Ministry had earlier approved the proposal to establish a separate wing for Human Trafficking and a Cyber Bureau submitted by Inspector General of Police Sarbendra Khanal.

The Finance Ministry has allocated budget, in the current fiscal year, to set up the two bureaus.