An important step towards rehabilitation of victims of human trafficking in the South Asian region has been unable to take off as India been unable to convince its neighbours to work out an arrangement of sending back trafficked women and children to their respective countries.

India has been negotiating with the governments of Nepal and Bangladesh for a while to find a solution for quick repatriation of trafficked people to their countries of origin. However, the negotiations have yielded no results.

“My ministry, in collaboration with the Home Ministry and other stakeholders, is working on a joint action plan with Bangladesh for quick and safe repatriation of cross-border trafficked victims of both countries,” said Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhary at a South Asian Regional Conference on the United Nations’ Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN-GIFT).

A top Government official told The Indian Express that a similar arrangement was also being worked out with Nepal. Bangladesh and Nepal are the biggest contributors to cross-border trafficking into India.

A few rounds of talks have already been held with both the governments, and the issue was also discussed at the SAARC meeting in New Delhi earlier this year, the official said.

A major hitch faced while formulating an agreement is the procedure adopted for identification of the nationality of trafficked people. Bangladesh, in particular, was not ready to accept that a huge number of people from the country was migrating to India, the official added. A large number of them were migrating through human trafficking.

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