By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Oct. 22: Twenty-four Nepali children were rescued from the city of Ghaziabad near New Delhi, India, on Monday evening in coordination with the Nepali Embassy in India.
A team of the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens (MWCSC), National Child Rights Council (NCRC), Nepal Police, Directorate of Women, Children and Senior Citizens Service handed over the children to their parents at the District Police Office, East Nawalparasi.
According to Namuna Bhusal, child protection manager at NCRC, 24 children -- 20 boys and four girls aged from 10 to 16-years-old -- were rescued and handed over to their respective parents in the presence of District Administration Office, Nepal Police, and other government and non-government officials.
Most of the children were taken to India during the lockdown period. A few of them were taken before the lockdown, luring them with lucrative income in India, she said.
At a time when all the checkpoints and the surveillance of the security personnel at the checkpoints have become weak due to the COVID-19 pandemic, traffickers played an active role on taking children to India and third countries showing them attractive payment, she said.
The rescued children are from Nawalparasi, Dang, Siraha, Banke, Surkhet and Rupendehi districts, Bhusal said. The children were rescued from Ghaziabad in India and brought to Nepal via Sunauli border.
According to Bhusal, people involved in taking children to India have been arrested by the Indian police and a case has been filed.
Local police have stepped up surveillance on vehicles coming from Nepal based on secret information that human traffickers were taking Nepali children to New Delhi.
Bhusal said that taking small children to India and showing them a better future has become a new phenomenon for human traffickers. They might use girls in prostitution and boys might be trafficked to the third country.