Mizoram: 23 victims of ‘human trafficking’ handed over to Nepal

Aizawl: Mizoram police, state social welfare department along with Community Health Action Network (CHAN), an NGO working for the welfare of person in need, have handed over 23 Nepali women, suspected to be victims of human trafficking, to Nepal government, a police officer said on Monday.

The officer said that the adult women, who were lodged at different protective homes under social welfare department, were transported towards their country and handed over to the Nepal government last week.

The Nepali women were rescued from Champhai and Aizawl while being trafficked in late April.

Some of them had already been in Middle East. They were being transported to Delhi from where they were taken to Guwahati. From Guwahati, they were transported to Aizawl, from where they were supposed to enter Myanmar.

Police said that the women entered Mizoram in different phases of groups.

The police had arrested one suspected identified as Lal Bahadur, who helped the girl in Aizawl. He has been detained in judicial custody for further interrogation.

Following the report of trafficker using Mizoram as safe passage for human trafficking, the state police have sounded alert across the state especially in the international borders.

Sandwiched between Myanmar and Bangladesh, Mizoram shares over 800 km long international border with the two countries.

On April 23, the Mizoram police had arrested eight Rohingya women, trapped by traffickers, at Vairengte check gate on the Mizoram-Assam border while attempting to enter the state without valid travel documents. This was followed by the rescue of eight Rohingya girls and four boys, suspected to be trafficked, from the resident of a widow in Aizawl’s Edenthar locality on May 5.

While the eight Rohingya women are yet to be sent to foreigner detention centre in Assam, the Rohingya girls and boys are still lodged at protective homes in Aizawl.

The police had also arrested over 100 non-indigenous people for allegedly living in Mizoram without Inner Line Permit (ILP).

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