Our partner organisation in India, ChildLine, intercepted some child traffickers in Gorakhpur, North India on Thursday. The picture isn't entirely clear just yet but it seems that their victims were rescued as they were ostensibly on their way to jobs in Delhi, complete with appropriate documentation to commence work. However, instead of boarding a train to Delhi they were going to be put on one going to Mumbai (Bombay), a switch that illiterate girls wouldn't have realised until it was too late. In Mumbai they would have been sold to brothels or sent on to the sex trade in a Gulf state. When ChildLine contacted us for help, we immediately agreed to accept them upon repatriation and take them into our care.
Seven girls are now back in Nepal, waiting at the border before being transferred to our Kathmandu facilities. Of the seven, three are minors. Within the other four, one or possibly two are the agents involved in the crime and the police need to question the group further to establish the truth. Once identified the agent(s) will be brought to justice and face long prison sentences.
This good news coincides with the launch of our online Christmas appeal (see the link on the right). In the first six months of next year, alongside ChildLine, we want to retrieve approximately 150 children and teenage girls from around six Indian circuses. This follows our successful rescue of 280 children in the last four years from other circuses. This time the team will be tackling the most exploitative of the circuses and some very dangerous men, bringing these child abusers to justice through a dedicated lawyer. We need to raise £15,846 to undertake this mission, this covering rescue operations, repatriation and legal action.
Please give as generously as you can.
