Newmai News Network Aizawl | July 29 Despite several steps taken by the Mizoram government and police, human trafficking is still active in Mizoram, police officials said on Saturday. CID (crime) branch of the Mizoram Police record revealed that at least 24 human trafficking cases were registered under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act in the last 18 years since 2000, of which 22 were charge-sheeted and one case is still pending. At least 46 people, including 16 non-tribals, were arrested in connection with human trafficking cases during the same period, the record said. 38 people, some of them aged below 14 years, were victims of human trafficking, the police record further revealed. Human trafficking cases were highest in 2004 and 2005 as in these years 4 cases each were registered by state police, it also said. ''The actual number of cases could be much higher since it is certain that many cases went unrecorded,'' a senior police officer stated. During the current year, one case was registered and a person from neighbouring Myanmar was arrested at Vaiphai village in southern Mizoram's Champhai district for allegedly trafficking innocent girls, the police officer said. ''Backward states like Mizoram is vulnerable to human trafficking and most of the victims have been lured out with a promise of job,” the officer added. According to police, force prostitution figured as the highest number of human trafficking cases in Mizoram. In 2011, a Mizoram Police team rescued four Mizoram girls who were being forced into prostitution in Mumbai. Police said one of the girls hailed from Mizoram-Assam border town of Vairengte and the other three from southern Mizoram's Lunglei district. All four were lured into going to Mumbai by a Mizo woman and her two non-tribal accomplices. Initially, the trio promised the girls job in massage and beauty parlours but later sold them for flesh trade. In 2011, Mizoram police made a breakthrough and arrested 10 people in connection with human trafficking, which was the highest number of arrest in a year. The police record also said that human trafficking cases were nil in 2003, 2007, 2007, 2013, 2014, and 2015.
