Indian dealer demands NRs 800,000 per child
April 5: Rich British families are buying children left devastated by last year’s earthquake in Nepal to work as domestic slaves, an investigation by British tabloid The Sun has revealed. The children as young as 10 are being sold for as little as £5,250 (NRs 800,000) by black market gangs operating in India’s Punjab region, the newspaper said.
Worth of stories
The gangs are targeting the children of Nepali refugees and poor Indian families. Slave trader Makkhan Singh told a reporter that the children are obtained by approaching their destitute parents to “do a deal.”
“I can supply the boy. But as to taking him into the UK and the documents you will need, that’s your responsibility,” Singh added. “We have supplied boys who have actually gone on to the UK. What you do with him’s up to you.”
Singh revealed that he usually wraps up a deal within 10 minutes and said: “Take a Nepalese to England. They are good people. They are good at doing housework and they’re very good cooks. No one is going to come after you.”
Ten years old Amit was just one of the kids on offer.
The Sun’s reporter was taken by Singh to meet the children facing a life of servitude, including 10-year-old Amit, 12-year-old Pooja and 13-year-old Susti Ram. Singh said that he had been trading children for eight years and insisted on doing the deal first. “You’re not taking them straight to England,” he said. “You don’t need the documents straight away. We know plenty of people who can do the documents. We’ve got a good network.”
Following the revelation, British Home Secretary Theresa May called on the National Crime Agency (NCA) to look into the claims. “No child, anywhere in the world, should be taken away from their home and forced to work in slavery,” said Theresa May.
“We encourage The Sun to share its disturbing findings with the Police and National Crime Agency so that appropriate action can be taken against the vile criminals who profit from this trade.”
Speaking to Sky News, an NCA spokeswoman said: “The NCA works with partners in the UK and internationally to identify and pursue criminals and to safeguard both child and adult victims.
“The hidden nature of human trafficking means that it often goes unreported. Anyone who suspects it should report their concerns to law enforcement,” she added.
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