by Chris Denham

ON her last day in Nepal, “sister of the Gurkhas” Joanna Lumley
gained another title, this time for something less often in the
media spotlight.

With relatively wealthy India bordering terribly poor Nepal - in
fact the 12th poorest country in the world - it is not surprising
that their porous border sees human trafficking on a scale rarely
seen elsewhere. The problem is exacerbated thanks to the border
country’s rural nature, where farmers still aim to have large
families with as few girls as possible.

An organisation called Maiti Nepal was created to combat the
issue, and it was they who asked Ms Lumley to represent them in
Britain.

On Ms Lumley’s last day of her week-long trip, which encompassed
visits to villages and towns across the country to meet Gurkha
vetreans and their families, she was invited to the charity’s base
in Kathmandu; a refuge and orphanage hidden away off a side
street.

Run by Anuradha Koirala, a senior figure in Nepali society and
known to everyone as Aunty, the charity not only cares for victims
of trafficking but also actively combats it, raiding brothels
across India and targeting known traffickers.

Aunty told
the Kentish Express: “Every day we get nine or ten calls. We don’t
go to the police. Instead we chase down the traffickers and we hand
them over. There is no point in ringing Asian police if a woman
goes missing, they will just say 'oh, she’s with her husband...

“The first thing the traffickers do is seperate mothers and
children so the child doesn’t give trouble when their mum is with
clients. We just recently saved four women from Pune [Indian city
pronounced 'Poona’] and on the way back as normal people would turn
up and say 'this is my daughter’ etc. It is a three-day train
journey from Mumbai and we have to have police travelling with us
all the way.

“But we now have 450 cases in the courts and recently 35 have
been convicted, in some cases for 90 years.”

Among the many childern at the refuge, many of those pictured are
HIV positive. They were either born that way as a result of their
mothers’ abuse in brothels, or contracted after being trafficked
themselves.

Speaking to the assembled women, girls and boys at the refuge,
Ms Lumley said: “When I got here today, Aunty asked me if I could
be an ambassador for Maiti Nepal, and I’m pleased to say that I
have no hesitation in saying yes, absolutely. You have all been so
warm and welcoming to us.”

For Ms Lumley and her band of campaigners, now comes the hard
work of raising the charity’s profile in the UK and finding ways to
help.

As Aunty said: “There is no point in people sending things like
clothes, as we then have to bribe the post office to let us have
them. We might as well just spend the money on new clothes instead
of bribes.”

Go to the Maiti Nepal website for further details.