Newmai News Network
Imphal | July 12
Twenty-one women from Nepal who were rescued from being trafficked in Manipur were sent back to their country (Nepal) on Sunday.
Officials of the Manipur Social Welfare Department handed over them to the Embassy of Nepal to India through counsel Prakash Adhikari after completing due procedures for sending back to their homes in Nepal.
They left Imphal for Nepal in a bus along with state security personnel and representatives of Nepal Embassy who will drop them upto Indo-Nepal border.
Manipur Social Welfare Department deputed six officials, four from the state police and two from Ujjawalla homes of the state Social Welfare Department who will accompany the rescued women till Kakadvitta-Panitank Border.
Officials of the state Social Welfare Department said that all these women were rescued in the month of November and December 2019, and among them, one is a mentally ill woman who was rescued from Ukhrul district of the State.
Most of these women came to Manipur in small groups both by air and through land routes in four batches, they said
Eight of them were detained by the Airport authorities in Imphal International Airport on suspicion due to lack of proper travel documents while 12 were apprehended at the Indo-Myanmar border at Moreh, they said.
The Nepali women were detained by the officials on duty at ICP (Integrated Check Post) at the Indo-Myanmar border in Moreh along with the police and troops of Assam Rifles while they were trying to sneak into Myanmar using fake documents.
They were reportedly bound to travel to Gulf countries such as Kuwait, Dubai (UAE) etc via Myanmar, the officials said.
The victims of trafficking were provided shelters at three separate Ujjawala homes in Kakching and Chandel districts where they were imparted vocational training above medical aid and counselling during their stay at the homes, the officials said.
Regarding the mentally unstable woman, police personnel in Ukhrul district rescued the woman from the paddy field at Choithar village where she was found loitering in December 2019.
She was kept at Swadhar home (UNICAM) of the district since then and provided medical and psychological treatment.
This was the second batch of repatriation of Nepali women rescued in Manipur where human traffickers allegedly used them as their transit route to traffic citizens of Nepal to other countries, particularly in the Gulf countries.
Ii may also be mentioned that, in February 2019, altogether 179 people from Nepal including 32 men were rescued in Manipur and they were sent back to their country.
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