Archive : South Asia

Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) is starting a special course called anti-human trafficking from the coming academic session. The six month course was earlier launched by union home minister P Chidambaram in the capital, and now students in the city can enrol for the same. Regional director of Ignou P Sivaswaroop said, "Students who have cleared Std XII can apply for the course before July 15. Special classes for this course will be held on Sundays at Guru Nanak Bhavan building.

A city court has asked the Delhi government to probe allegations against the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) that it released victims of human trafficking and child labour to their relatives, who again pushed the children back to areas from where they were rescued. Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau’s order came in a case pertaining to a series of raids conducted by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police and NGO Shakti Vahini last year. During the raids, several girls, including minors, were rescued from illegal placement agencies.

Delhi Government on Monday approved a comprehensive compensation scheme for victims of rape, acid attacks, human trafficking, child abuse and kidnapping. Under the scheme, approved by the Delhi Cabinet, a rape victim will get a maximum compensation of Rs three lakh and a minimum of Rs two lakh within two months of the crime.

Arrested for torturing and exploiting minor girls in the shelter home, Jaswanti Devi on Saturday threatened to expose government officials who frequented her place. Jaswanti told mediapersons that she had proofs as entries in the visitor book. The woman did not reveal why officials visited the place but said, "They often had tea and ladoos.

Haryana police claimed to have busted an inter-state child trafficking racket and rescued 11 children, including six girls, from the clutches of a gang. The police arrested two persons and produced them before a court, which has remanded them in police custody for four days. The rescued children are from Jharkhand and Orissa, the police said. The police had got a whiff of the racket on Wednesday. Eleven children had been confined at a home in Surya Vihar on the Delhi-Faridabad border and were being forced into manual labour in the Capital, the police learnt. "We formed a team and raided the home the same evening," said Darshan Lal Malik, assistant commissioner of police, Sarai Kwaja. "We rescued all the 11 children and also arrested two persons," Malik said. The police were told during interrogation that Deepak Kumar and Sunil, both from Jharkhand, had lured the children with the promise of high-paying jobs in Delhi.

The menace of human trafficking remains a major problem in India despite many policies and laws being in place, said Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan at an award event here. The chief minister said that India has been on watch list of international organizations as its efforts have not been adequate to eradicate this social evil. Chavan was speaking Friday night after presenting The Week magazine's "Man of The Year Award" for 2011 to Ajeet Singh, who has been spearheading a campaign against human trafficking and has been working for rehabilitation of trafficked women and their children.

The state unit of Prevention of Atrocities Against Women (PAW) housed in Pune has unearthed an international flesh trade ring in which minor girls were shipped to Gulf countries under false promises of being hired as domestic help. Investigations began when PAW authorities rescued nine girls from Nepal in January and February this year. A complaint against two suspects – Taufik Ahmad Ali Mulla Shah (37) and his assistant Firoz Mehboob Shaikh (32), both residents of Mumbai – was filed at the Mahatma Phule Police Station in Kalyan, near Mumbai, from whose jurisdiction the girls were rescued.

As many as 28 Pakistanis deported from Greece over illegal stay and incomplete documents arrived here on Tuesday. According to details, 28 Pakistan who were deported by Greece authorities landed at Islamabad airport through a private airline and were taken into custody by immigration officials.

A total of 47 Bangladeshi nationals working for a local security firm were seized on Thursday by the Department of Immigration as part of a wider crackdown on unregistered migrant workers. The detention of the expatriate workers comes after police late last year reported a “day-by-day” increase in human trafficking in the Maldives. The Maldives Police Service’s claims were based on a surge in the numbers of illegal expatriate workers found in the country. Assistant Controller of the Immigration Department Ibrahim Ashraf told Minivan News that the 47 Bangladesh nationals were all apprehended following a raid of a company providing security guards that was not registered to employ foreigners.

Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has nabbed 6,835 persons involved in illegal human trafficking in the country during the last four years. Giving year-wise details about the arrests, an official source on Friday said in 2008, 1642 smugglers or traffickers were arrested, 1775 in 2008, 1779 in 2010 and 1639 were apprehended during 2011.In addition, the Agency also nabbed 1,842 Proclaimed Offenders (POs) during the period with 376 arrests in 2008, 441 in 2009, 522 in 2010 and 503 POs in 2011.