KATHMANDU, Aug 31: A probe carried out by Nepal Police has disclosed that illiterate Nepali girls are being trafficked to China with the use of fake marriage documents. According to the Anti-Human Traffic Bureau of Nepal Police, girls from remote mountain villages are trafficked to China. Police have stopped some of them at the airport.

Once they are in China, the trafficked girls are used as domestic workers and sex slaves, said police involved in the investigations. Preliminary investigations show that the girls are lured by local agents and brought to Kathmandu. They are then married off to Chinese grooms and marriage certificates from Kathmandu District Court made out. 

The investigators say around two million rupees is spent to traffic one Nepali girl to China. According to the anti-trafficking bureau, the prices of the Nepali and Chinese traffickers and their associates are settled before sending the girls to China.

A Chinese broker in the trafficking receives up to Rs 1 million whereas the Nepali middlemen or women bringing the girl to Kathmandu get a maximum of Rs 200,000. The women keeping the girl in Kathmandu get Rs 800,000. A few thousands is given to the parents of the girl as well to keep them happy.

The traffickers provide the girls makeup items and a smart phone to communicate with the “grooms” over social networking sites such as WeChat. The entire deal is worked out and executed in Thamel, informed the investigators. 

Acting on a tip-off, personnel from the bureau had arrested six Nepalis for their alleged involvement in the trafficking. Those arrested have been identified as Reena Tamang of Sihdupalchwok, Parbati Gurung of Lamjung, Amrit Gurung of Chitwan, Roj Tamang of Nuwakot, and Bharat Tamang and Usha Kumari Ghimire of Lamjung. 

Four Chinese nationals—Quan Zhan Peng, Qin Liwang, Zeng Xiang Dong and Zhang Dong Hui—were also arrested in Kathmandu. 

Five of the girls were intercepted at Tribhuvan International Airport this week while being taken to China. 

“Initially, we had arrested two girls from TIA and it later turned out more girls were involved,” said Govinda Thapaliya, an investigator working under the anti-trafficking bureau. 

Police learnt from those getting trafficked that more were at risk of being sent off to China.

SSP Ishwarbabu Karki, the director of the bureau, said it was mysterious how the marriages were arranged and the marriage certificates produced all within such a short span. “On an average both the marriage and the marriage certification process are completed in from one to two weeks,” he said, raising questions over the speediness of the process. “What is suspicious is how little time it takes. How is it possible?”

Karki said the bureau has intensified its investigations to curb such human trafficking to China as well as other countries after receiving complaints.