Eighteen-year-old Pema Sherpa and Pasang Gurung (names changed) were five years old when a family friend picked Sherpa from Sindhupalchowk and Gurung from Kathmandu and took them across the border to Khasa, Tibet.

For thirteen years, they served a Sherpa family as domestic workers. Consequently, they are rusty in their Nepali, but fluent in both Sherpa and Chinese languages. They were working as hostesses in a cabin restaurant, drinking beer together with clients, from eight in the evening till nine the next day, on their way to becoming professional sex workers, when Chinese police raided the place and handed them over to Maiti Nepal, a non-profit organisation committed to preventing human trafficking, a week ago. Since Maiti Nepal set up a booth at the Nepal-China border in Khasa in November 2011, more than 200 women have been rescued and repatriated. And although India has always been the primary destination for human traffickers, the organisation says that Khasa is increasingly becoming a favourite destination of late.

“Unfortunately, language is a problem when it comes to working together with the Chinese government to crack down on human trafficking hubs in Khasa,” said Hasta Khadka, acting director at Maiti Nepal.

Published on: 12 September 2013 | The Kathmandu Post