FROM GAMEKEEPER TO POACHER

The complicated and saddening nature of child trafficking was highlighted on Saturday when we were asked to receive seven girls and women who had been trafficked from various locations across southern Nepal.

Our anti-trafficking partner in India, ChildLine India, was alerted to their plight when they were found boarding a train to Mumbai (Bombay) having been led to believe they were headed for employment in Delhi.

The girls were illiterate so had no way of knowing that they were actually en route to one of India's most notorious trafficking destinations, where many young Nepali girls end up enslaved as prostitutes.

We frequently hear similar tales of young women's naiveté and desperation being exploited. However, this was no typical rescue. It transpires that the three older women in the group were trafficking agents, fully complicit in the exploitation of the four younger girls.

The really disturbing aspect of this sad chain of events is that one woman had previously been employed in an anti-trafficking NGO where she had learned of the riches on offer to agents - the people she was meant to confront.

Poverty ensures that even the consciences of people one would hope to trust can be bought; this woman opted to accept the financial incentives on offer and betray the children and young people she was once entrusted to protect.

The Esther Benjamins Trust is currently liaising with local authorities to ensure the innocent girls are cared for while the three agents are brought to justice.

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