Today I attended a meeting of donor and support agencies (like EBT) that are working against trafficking and that try to coordinate their activities. It was very disturbing to here from one attendee of how her organisation has witnessed a rise in internal trafficking in Nepal - village girls ending up in massage parlours and unofficial brothels in the capital. Two or three years ago these girls were 18 and above; now they are aged 12-13. After the meeting I volunteered for EBT to take the chair for future meetings and I hope we can be instrumental in organising a collaborative response to the problem before it's too late.
Mr Big of the Indian circus industry is a very unsavoury guy called Phateh Khan. He and his family own four or five of India's 30 major circuses. He's wealthy and he's well dug in a
s he is now a minister in government in India's lawless northern state of Uttar Pradesh. His circuses are the most exploitative and violent of the lot; last time we tackled one of these it was a case of resistance with guns and knives. Afterwards his beloved son Raza Khan faced charges of rape against the girls that we rescued - but of course got off Scot-free in the end. A rather grainy recent picture of Phateh with the girls that he and his family have been exploiting and abusing can be seen above.Next week we'll be visiting another of his circuses in a bid to free over 20 girls from bondage. I will try to keep you posted, but wish us luck.
