Four and a half years ago we rescued Anita (name changed) from The Great Roman Circus which was playing in Lucknow. She was one of seven minors who were hidden away by the circus at the time of the rescue and were only retrieved through court action and habeas corpus. Anita came to our refuge in Bhairahawa, southwest Nepal, delighted to be free. My wife Bev, who was working for the Trust at that time, became very close to Anita and those other little children. She remembers how Anita would touch her own skin and say "naramro" (bad) and then Bev's and say "ramro" (good). The lighter your skin in Nepal the higher your status or caste. Anita came from the untouchable (dalit) caste and their skins can be very dark as an ethnic group.
Two years later Anita moved to live at the Kathmandu refuge with many of the other children who had been in Bhairahawa. A few months later she was excitedly pointing out how her skin colour had lightened a couple of shades by the move to the cooler north. Anita wasn't an academic girl but had a lovely extroverted personality and this translated into dance which had become a passion for her.
Anita's family background was very poor. The family lived in a wooden hut by the side of the road just outside Hetauda in the central south of Nepal. Like many of the rural poor, alcohol abuse dominated the family's day to day existence. At one point the father was found to be dismantling his hut to sell the wood to buy alcohol. Anita had become very concerned about her younger sister and brother who were at high risk of being trafficked and with the father's consent we took them into our Kathmandu refuge as well.
Last year Anita's father died and Anita, like many of the refuge children, went home for a few days around the festival of Dashain in October (this is the main Hindu festival and a time for family get togethers). It is also a time when the families who messed the children's lives up by trafficking them in the first place get a chance to spoil their lives yet again. But we are supposed to encourage reintegration to family and community and although Dashain scares the living daylights out of me we still comply with the children's and families wishes to be together for the festival. After a week or so at home Anita announced that she wanted to stay on with her mother and not return to the refuge. This was her decision and as a 16 year old there is very little that can be done to make someone change their mind. Shortly afterwards I was disappointed to hear that she had become married and that would be the last we'd probably see of this lovely girl.
Yesterday I heard that it seems her uncle has in fact trafficked her to India and Anita is now in Mumbai (the epicentre of the sex trade) or possibly even in Saudi Arabia. Once a girl goes down this route she becomes almost untraceable. We will find the uncle though and see what can be done.
This sad story reflects just how vulnerable trafficking survivors are, not least because their yearning to be back with kith and kin and have a sense of belonging puts them in such a high risk situation. It is also a stark reminder to us as to how little we can do to protect girls who can be whisked away so quickly down a path to an existence that is beyond our comprehension.
