TRAPPED IN AN ALIEN LAND
Girls in the northeast are being lured by agents to work in Southeast Asian countries. They transit through Myanmar, where all proof of their Indian identity is taken away. They are given Myanmarese passports, their families have no way to trace them. Ye
Mercy Bawm was 17 when she died in Singapore in 2014. Four years later, her family in Mizoram is still unaware of what really happened. “We couldn’t bring her body home. Or even see her one last time, since we neither had passports nor the money to travel to Singapore,” says Nancy, 40, her mother. Nancy is reluctant to talk about the ordeal the family suffered since the fateful telephone call from her daughter’s employer, informing them that
Mercy had committed suicide.
“It was after she died that we discovered that Mercy had not travelled to Singapore on an Indian passport,” says her mother, revealing the reason why her daughter’s body could not be brought home. Both Mercy’s employer and other people from Mizoram working in Singapore, told the family that Mercy had a Myanmarese passport while working in Singapore. Neither her name, nor her age or address were real. “Our daughter didn’t have an Indian identity anymore,” says Nancy.
Unregistered placement agencies in the north-east, in states such as Manipur and Mizoram, are sending women and young girls to Southeast Asian and Gulf countries, taking advantage of the porous border that north-east India shares with Myanmar. Myanmar is, however, just a stop-over, where the girls are given a new identity and trained for their life to come, before being sent to work in salons or as housemaids in countries such as Singapore. Their Indian documents are taken away and they are given Myanmarese passports. The physical resemblance between the people on both sides of the border makes the identity switch easy.
Educated till class 11 and from a lower middle class family, Mercy was excited at the prospect of working in a foreign country. As a housemaid in Singapore, she was hoping to earn ₹20,000 per month. Mercy had been offered work by a local agent, who promised her family that she would face no problems.
A year after moving to Singapore, however, Mercy had sent home only ₹7000. The Bawms didn’t mind. Neither were they unduly alarmed – as long as they believed their daughter was happy. But then came the devastating news of her suicide. The local agent stopped answering their calls after that. He even left town for a while but is now back and has resumed work. The Bawms are, of course, shattered. Yet, they chose not to lodge a police complaint against the agent, or ask for an official enquiry into Mercy’s death. “It will not bring our child back. And Mercy has three siblings. We have to live here,” says her mother in a helpless voice. This explains why the Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) in Mizoram doesn’t have a single registered case of cross-border trafficking.
NOT THE ONLY ONE
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Manipur, Lamzakap Simte, father of Esther Hoihnunching, is a worried man. His daughter left home in the first week of April 2017 and contacted the family only in December to inform them that she had reached Singapore. “On 18 January this year, Esther called us again, this time from a different number and told us that she has a different name now. Her age is 18, but on the new passport, it is 22 years. While the couple she is working for is good, their extended family is cruel. She longs for us and wants to come back,” says Simte.
At his wits end as to how to help his daughter, Simte advised Esther to continue working in Singapore, till she had saved enough money to return home and was confident of doing so on her own. “What if she tries to come back and gets lost on the way?” wonders the worried father. “I am in a fix. I fear that once the details of the Singapore agents are out, my daughter will be harmed and shifted to a new location and will be untraceable. Her identity is already changed.”
Simte mustered the courage to register an FIR in Churachandpur in September. But Rakesh Balwal, superintendent of police, Churachandpur, says that since the girl has a new identity, her passport details or location are needed to first trace her and then initiate the repatriation process. Her Indian name and details have been sent to the state home department, he says.
Few families in the region file a police
I fear that once the details of the Singapore agents are out, my daughter will be harmed and shifted to a new location... Her identity has already been changed.