24 Nepali women rescued from house in Delhi

Kathmandu, May 18 : Twenty four Nepali girls and women, between 15 and 40 years of age, have been rescued from a house in Delhi, a media report said.

A broker had lured the women with the promise of jobs in the Middle East and had been keeping them at a house in Uttam Nagar Phase IV of Delhi for a month, Om Joshi, a counsellor at the Nepal Embassy was quoted by Kathmandu Post as saying.

A joint team of the Embassy of Nepal and Crime Branch of Delhi Police rescued the girls and handed them to Maiti India, an anti-trafficking organisation.

Around 16,500 Nepalis, mostly women and children, were trafficked to various countries in 2014 and 2015, according to a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report.

The report also stated that there has been 20 per cent increase in vulnerability of trafficking of women and children after the earthquake that rocked Nepal in 2015.

Traffickers often use Delhi as a transit point for sending people to countries that are off-limits for Nepali migrant workers.

The Embassy of Nepal in Delhi has reduced visit visa to third world countries as a part of its bid to curb trafficking, it said.