Nepal’s government blocks "all unauthorized movement" in bid to stop child trafficking
Kathmandu (AsiaNews) - A little over a month after the devastating earthquake that hit Nepal, thousands of children have disappeared. There are fears that they may have fallen into the hands of human traffickers. To counter this the government has decided to ban all travel for minors unaccompanied by parents or legal guardians.
The authorities have established that any child who wants to move within Nepalese territory must be accompanied by parents or a guardian. The trip will have to be authorized with a written permit issued by the district Council for the welfare of children.
According to the Ministry for the welfare of women and children, this measure aims to prevent trafficking and the exploitation of children who have lost their homes in the earthquake and are currently in rescue centers.
many minors are already missing from the open air tent camps, more than 5 thousand as reported by Kamal Ban Sing, a local police spokesman. Officials are working on thousands of missing child reports. He told AsiaNews: "The reports of missing children are still rising. But we believe that the real number is even higher since many parents or guardians have died and no one is alive to file suit for them. We are doing our best to save the lives of these children and we ask everyone to help us. "
Rupa Rai, a Catholic activist, invites all parents to pay close attention to the safety of their children: "Right now there are many opportunities to exploit those children who lost their families in the quake. Not only that, there are great risks even for those children who have not lost parents, but are living in temporary shelter. We fear that they may be abused or exploited. "
"The Catholic organizations such as Caritas and other religious groups are promoting programs to raise awareness in the various temporary shelters and are attracting the attention of the government to ensure the safety and protection of children."
Keshav Prasad Regmi, director general of the department for women and children within the Ministry, noted: "The government has come to this decision in the hope of reducing the phenomenon [of child abduction - ed] and stem the trafficking of children to other countries ".
Minendra Rijal, government spokesman confirms this commitment: "The ban will help us to control the illegal trade of children. We will continue to implement it until it we can guarantee the safety of every single child".
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