How a neglected border town in northeast India became a trafficking hotspot and why its entrenched smuggling systems may be hard to root out
A new report identifies a small town on the border of India and Myanmar as a major trafficking transit point, the Global Protection Cluster publishes an introductory guide for humanitarian practitioners, and the Freedom From Slavery Forum releases highlights from its recent digital convention.
The remote and isolated north-eastern region of India is a forgotten frontier. Lying adjacent to Myanmar, it is an insurgency-ridden area with a vibrant smuggling economy that connects South Asia with Southeast Asia. It is also a zone of military and geopolitical conflict, with New Delhi and Beijing in contention over control of its border areas. Consisting of seven provinces, the region is connected to the Indian heartland through an extremely narrow strip of territory: the so-called Siliguri Corridor, a 22-kilometre-wide slice of Indian land between Nepal and Bangladesh.
In its new report Crossing the line: Geopolitics and criminality at the India-Myanmar border, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime highlights the entrenched nature of trafficking in persons in this part of the country. It focuses on the border town of Moreh, immediately adjacent to Myanmar, where informal trade has become the main source of income and which is now a transit point for drug smuggling and human trafficking.
Previously, women and under-aged girls from Manipur, the state in which Moreh is located, were trafficked to other provinces of India as well as to countries in Southeast Asia, to work in the sex trade. The province was a source of trafficking victims rather than a transit area. However, in 2019, reports surfaced that men and women from Nepal were being sent to Southeast Asia, West Asia and the Middle East via Moreh.
Since the Nepali government has banned certain categories of female travelers from flying directly to Gulf countries, in order to prevent them from being trafficked, trafficking networks first take Nepali women eastward into Myanmar, via India, and then back westward to countries such as Oman, Kuwait and Iraq.
The choice of Moreh as a transit location might partly come down to history: in both Namphalong and Tamu, Moreh’s Burmese neighbouring towns, there exist sizeable Nepali trading communities descended from Gurkha soldiers who fought in the British Army during the Second World War. These communities can arrange transit accommodation and onward transport of trafficking victims along the Asian Highway. On the Indian side, Manipur seems to have become a hotspot because the airport at New Delhi, previously a much used jumping-off point for Nepalis being trafficked to West Asia, has tightened vigilance. A new route has emerged, whereby victims are flown from the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, to Bagdogra, a small Indian town in the Siliguri Corridor. From here, they are taken by train to Dimapur in Nagaland, and then by bus to Imphal, Manipur’s capital city. From Imphal they are bussed to Moreh. While in Manipur, their handlers obtain Myanmar e-visas for the victims, exploiting the simplified visa application procedures that are available to Nepali passport-holders. After crossing the border to Myanmar, many of the victims travel to the Persian Gulf.
The paper examines the specific case of Moreh to illustrate how smuggling has become integrated with an informal economy, plus current trends, and explains why – despite the best efforts of the Indian government – the illegal cross-border trade is almost too entrenched to root out.
Here’s a round-up of other noteworthy news and initiatives:
A proposal that could have stiffened penalties against companies based in Switzerland if they violated human rights or harmed the environment abroad failed in a Swiss referendum on Sunday.
The return of at least 16 children and an estimated 12 adults to Trinidad following their deportation to Venezuela on 22 November gives the authorities of Trinidad and Tobago a second chance to uphold their domestic and international obligations to provide protection for people seeking safety from danger, said the Caribbean Centre for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Refugees International and 14 other organizations in an open letter last week.
The OSCE Office of the Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings has published the Highlights of the 20th Conference of the Alliance against Trafficking in Persons, summarizing the unique insights offered by experts into efforts to prosecute offenders and eradicate human trafficking at national, regional and international levels.
The WePROTECT Global Alliance, a nonprofit that fights child exploitation, has stated that Europe is already host to the vast majority of known child abuse material on the internet and that limiting automated detection tools in the EU would have major implications for children globally.
The Global Protection Cluster’s Anti-Trafficking Task Team has published an introductory guide for humanitarian practitioners, introducing them to the issue of trafficking in persons in internal displacement contexts. The information is intended to assist in the detection, identification, referral, protection and assistance of trafficked persons who may be internally displaced persons (IDPs), part of the crisis-affected population, or the host community.
The Freedom From Slavery Forum has released an in-depth report on its recent four-day event, in which participants from 33 countries took part in digital seminars on research, advocacy, survivors and resources. The report contains summaries of each day’s key points and transcribed excerpts from keynote speeches.
In the latest high-profile recognition of the events taking place in the Uyghur Region, the Pope has acknowledged for the first time that the Uyghur people face persecution in China. The Chinese government has forcefully denied Pope Francis’s comments, with a spokesperson for the foreign ministry in Beijing dismissing them as an attempt to discredit the country.
Destination Unknown, a collective of organizations and individuals committed to protecting the rights of children and youth on the move, has pledged to support child and youth participation and to facilitate and promote young people’s meaningful engagement in policy discussions at local, national and global levels, on matters related to migration and integration in new communities. Join the pledge!
The Human Trafficking Foundation is inviting participants to join its report launch on 2 December, 11am-12.30pm, to hear why, despite the mantra of taking back control of UK borders, and with just weeks to go before it leaves the EU, the UK is unprepared to fight human trafficking in the new post-Brexit era and faces a possible increase in human trafficking cases.
One of our community members is looking for contacts to help provide support for victims of human trafficking in Sierra Leone. Please get in touch with any helpful leads.
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