After a long break from the pandemic, the Nepal border was opened and the transition of persons started from both countries. To continue the Indo-Nepal Network advocacy on cross border Human Trafficking, Caritas India with its Program implementing partner DEHAT called a meeting in collaboration with the counterpart agency Peace rehabilitation Centre Nepal involved in the Rehabilitation of the rescued victim so that better coordination can be developed among all the agencies working to combat Human Trafficking at Indo-Nepal border. It can be said that the outbreak of Covid-19 across the Globe has restricted the physical meetings which have affected the Coordination among the agencies. Seeing the post-Covid Impact of Human Trafficking from Nepal to India it felt that all the stakeholders should come together for the collective action to address the issue. The main objective of the meeting was to strengthen the network for better coordination among different agencies and members and identify the challenge and gaps in rescue and repatriation for preparing a joint draft for bilateral dialogue in both countries.

The meeting started with sharing the context and purpose of the meeting to strengthen the coordination among both the countries to develop a mutual consensus to address the Gaps and Challenges faced at the cross border from the time of rescue till repatriation and Rehabilitation.

DEHAT team member Hasan shared about the real challenges and gaps which the team face when they intercept the suspected victim of HT and do the enquiry. Sharing with the illustration he quoted about the child from Nepal who was staying in a shelter home in India and when the shelter home planned to repatriate the boy to his home in Nepal, they became helpless as the shelter home people were not aware of the concerned body in Nepal to convey the message about the children. This lack of awareness among the staff sometimes affect the best interest of the child which the JJ Act speaks about and it takes years to send them back to the country. 

Another concern is that somehow the message about the children reaches the Nepali organization and they go for the repatriation, then Nepal team also come across many challenges like lack of proper documentation, concern government body about women and children. 

In the case of the vigilance at the border sometimes people are stopped for questioning for a long hour by the organizations at the border, due to this delay they miss the bus where the ticket is booked and suffer financial loss.

While crossing the border, the people of Nepal are interviewed by the border Forces and the NGO intercepting at the border, who don’t know the Nepali language, then there is a communication problem, and it takes too much time without the proper information.

Traffickers are aware of the major routes and transition points and they are also familiar with the sub route where there is no vigilance. Hence, they take the unguarded routes to transit to India. 

Banke Regional Police Office in charge Min Bahadur Bistar said that Traffickers are adopting the new modus operandi to trap the victims. Therefore, we also need to increase and empower the frontline staff to understand the smuggling practices and all the organizations should continuously monitor by setting up booths on the side of the forest area likewise.

 Manju Pandey from the women children development office said we need to coordinate with district and national level policymakers to present the challenge and gaps which occurs in Rescue and Repatriation.

Nirmala Poudel from Shakti Group Nepal also shared her experience regarding repatriation. She said that due to a lack of SOP, many challenges are faced during repatriation. She told that with the joint initiative of Shakti group Nepal and ATWIN network, a directory has been presented regarding the rescue in MP.

Caritas India representative Animesh Williams said we need to develop better communication and coordination with counterparts to some concrete results. He said that the lack of MoU and SOP between India and Nepal has resulted in an increased number of Human Trafficking cases. we need to focus on developing a draft on major challenges and gaps jointly which can be tabled at the Interministerial Level for the bilateral dialogue with the Govt. stakeholders so that an Integrated MOU or SOP can be advocated from both the govt. and can be formalized to combat the cross border Human Trafficking. He said that Nepal is the source country while India is a destination country therefore more initiatives are to be taken from the Nepal end and India Caritas India will facilitate the dialogue process in Uttar Pradesh who is sharing the around six hundred Km of its border with seven districts. We need to develop jointly a draft on Challenges and Gaps we came across when a rescue is done and the victims are to be repatriated.