At Night I Cry

“I still don’t have any idea what I was supposed to do in India”, tells Senjal in her broken English. “The only thing I knew was that I was promised work and money.”

On the border with India she was stopped by a human rights organization who saved her from being trafficked for the sex-industry. Like many young girls in Nepal she was looking for opportunities for a better life. After the earthquake that hit the country two years earlier Senjal moved to Kathmandu, where she now lives with her four year old son and cousins in one small room.

She works as a dancer in a nightclub. The promise for work made her decide to go to India, where almost every girl ends up in the sex-industry. The diffuse networks not only transport girls to India, but now reach also as far as the Middle East and Africa. Globally the ILO estimates that more than 21 million people are being trafficked, which makes up an economical value of roughly 150 billion dollar. Experts say that after the earthquake of 2015 there has been an enormous rise in human trafficking. Senjal however is happy to be back in Kathmandu, after she was explained what could have happened. About a month after my visit to Nepal I receive a Facebook message from Senjal. She has gone to the city of Mombasa in Kenya, Africa. Details were missing, but she doesn’t like it over there, she says. Since then there is only silence.

Night falls at the Sunauli border between India and Nepal. A busy border crossing where many girls get trafficked. The open border between India and Nepal is one of the reasons the human trafficking is hard to control. Human rights organizations, together with the local police try to reduce the number of persons being trafficked, doing so with checking posts near the border crossings. Checking and interviewing every suspected girl who wants to cross the border. Senjal (21) was stopped here.
Senjal (21) in a local bus on her way to work in Kathmandu. With the work she does she helps sustain her parents back in their village, together with her son and other family members in Kathmandu. “I love to go to another place, to find a better life”, she says.
At Talakwo, also known as the pottery square in Bhaktapur, many houses collapsed during the earthquake that hit Nepal 25th of April 2015. One person died here. Two years after the earthquake the rebuilding process is slow and many parts of the old city are waiting to be rebuild. Bhaktapur was one of the three Kingdoms of Nepal and one of the worst hit city’s during the earthquake. According to a local NGO 341 people died in Bhaktapur during the earthquake.
Tul Bahadur Shaki (42) walks towards his broken house in Lekharka, Sindhupalshowk. His own and his brothers house were destroyed by the earthquake in April 2015. His sister and his sisters’ daughter died because of the earthquake. Due to the increased poverty many young girls have become victims of human trafficking, specifically in the area of Sindhupalchowk where the earthquake hit hard. Tul now works as a volunteer to speak about the dangers of trafficking in his village.
Senjal (21), on the left, in her room in Kathmandu, together with her son and other related family members. They all live in this room, apart from their cousin on the right. “I’m happy to be back in Kathmandu”, explains Senjal after she heard what could have happened to her when she did cross the border.
Sumitra, working as counsellor for Maiti Nepal is checking a bus on girls who could be victims of human trafficking at the checkpoint of Thankot, close to Kathmandu. If a girl is being suspected of being trafficked they are taken of the bus for inquiry. Sumitra was rescued herself out of the hands of traffickers and now works for Maiti since two years in the plight to end human trafficking.
At the checkpoint of Thankot, near Kathmandu, the police works together with Maiti Nepal to check every vehicle on girls are who are suspected of being trafficked. Busses that go directly to India have a high priority. The woman who work for Maiti Nepal mostly do the inquiery. They work in shift of about six hours. When someone is being suspected of being trafficked they hand over the trafficker to the police to start an official investigation and prosecution, the girls are send back to their families or are brought to a safehouse.
Kalpana works as a counsellor for Maiti Nepal at the Thankot checkpoint near Kathmandu. The counsellors of Maiti check almost every vehicle that passes for girls that could be a victim of human trafficking.
The counsellors of Maiti Nepal are interviewing young girls who are taken of a bus that goes to India. They check their documents and call to their relatives to check up on their stories. A ritual they carry out for every girl being suspected of being a victim of human trafficking. Busses that go to India have a high priority to check, while many girls end up in brothels in India.
Maya (20) left home after the earthquake, while everything was destroyed and the family was left with nothing. No food, clothes nor shelter. She wanted to go to Kathmandu to visit friends. She never reached her friends and ended up in India where she was being trafficked by a woman who spoke her local language. The woman suggested her to do prositution work, which at first she refused, but due to the situation she gave in. Then she was handed over to a woman named Seema, who brought her to a red light area where she worked for some time. She got earned 300 Indian rupee per client, of which Seema took half. When Maya and Seema went out for a walk they were caught by the police. “I am missing home a lot. When I think back at what happened and what I went through, my brain goes out. I go crazy.”
Senjal (21) together with her friend, are waiting for some street food before they go to work. Just a few weeks later she sends a Facebook message she is in the city of Mombasa, Kenya. She doesn’t like it over there, she explains. Much information is missing, but after the message there is only silence.
Senjal (21) is dancing in a night bar in Kathmandu, seven days a week. Much of these entertainment bars are a portal towards the trafficking industry. Senjal was stopped at the border with India by a human rights organization when a man that accompanied her ran into India. Senjal was returned home. ‘The only thing I knew was that I was promised work and money.’ When she came back to Kathmandu she started working again in the same bar.