‘Repatriate rescued women’

MUMBAI: Women were increasingly being trafficked into India’s sex industry from countries outside South Asia that didn’t have repatriation agreements, which left victims trapped in limbo for months after being rescued, officials said.

India has long been a destination for traffickers bringing women from neighbouring Bangladesh, which has a repatriation treaty, and Nepal, which works closely with Indian authorities on the issue.

Nations beyond South Asia – like Uzbekistan and Thailand – have emerged as source countries over the past three years, say police, campaigners and government data.

“The (repatriation) process is streamlined for Bangladesh and Nepal. But now people are coming from other parts and we have no treaties with them,” said Mahesh Bhagwat, police chief of Rachakonda district in Telangana.

Data is not yet available for last year, but authorities said 40 Thai women were rescued from massage parlours acting as fronts for prostitution in Mumbai and Pune in the first half of last year.

Bhagwat’s team also rescued an Uzbek woman last year from the sex trade in Hyderabad in Telangana. She committed suicide last month, four months after her repatriation process began.

“These girls are controlled by traffickers and they are coerced into saying many things. They are deeply indoctrinated,” said Sunitha Krishan, co-founder of the anti-trafficking charity Prajwala.

She urged more countries to make agreements with India to quickly repatriate those rescued from sex trafficking.