From Nepal with sex slaves: Did ‘Nation’ get the story wrong?

Nepal’s consul Jimmy Askar has complained about the June 22 Saturday Nation headline story on human trafficking. He says it is “not proper and not acceptable to the Nepalese community in Kenya and demands an apology.

The story is splashed across two pages inside the paper with the headline: “Trafficked for sex: How Nepalese girls are lured into a life of slavery in Kenya.”

It is illustrated with a blown-up photo of some of the 12 Nepalese women arrested in a police raid on an exclusive bar and restaurant, the New Rangeela, in Nyali, Mombasa, where they were performing the mujra, a hot sexy dance from South Asia. There is also the picture of Asif Jetha, owner of the exclusive bar. He is photographed peering behind metal bars at the Shanzu Law Courts in Mombasa, accused of human trafficking.

Human trafficking, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, is the acquisition of people by improper means such as deception, force or fraud with the goal of exploiting them.

The front-page introduction to the Nation story says the 12 women came to Kenya to work as dancers and escape biting poverty in Nepal — only to end up locked away with little access to their salaries.

In an email to managing editor Wayua Muli, Mr Askar says the Nepalese community is offended because slavery was abolished many centuries ago. The Nepalese girls are not slaves, he says.

But Ms Muli says there is no doubt in her mind that the 12 Nepalese girls were treated as slaves. Their movements and contact with the outside world were restricted.

“They also had to hand over their passports, and their pay was never fully given to them — part of it was allegedly sent to their families in Nepal…” she says. “In claiming that the girls were not slaves, I feel the Nepalese Honorary Consul is minimising their experience, which I consider a gross injustice and an insult to women of colour all over the world who continue to find themselves victims of circumstance, economics and misogyny.

“I don’t think we have anything to apologise for.”

Human trafficking is a major problem in the country that is located in the Himalayas and is about a quarter the size of Kenya but with more than half (29.9 million) of the latter’s population, according to the latest UN estimates.

Nearly one million Nepalese, or a third of the population, are unemployed, according to a government report released in April 2019. Nepali citizens commonly move in search of employment to counties such as India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.

Various sources estimate that 5,000–15,000 Nepali women and girls are trafficked annually to neighbouring India for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. A July 2011 American Bar Association report, “Human Trafficking Assessment Tool Report for Nepal”, states that these women and girls often are victimised by debt bondage, rape, abuse, enslavement, intimidation and deplorable work and living conditions.

Internally, although legalised slavery was abolished in 1924, Nepal has an estimated 234,600 people — 0.82 per cent of its population — who are enslaved, according to “The Global Slavery Index 2016”, a global study of modern-day slavery.

Thomson Reuters Foundation CEO Monique Villa says in a story published in Huffpost on May 31, 2016 and updated on June 1, 2017 that trafficking is endemic in Nepal. People have to migrate to find work and send money home.

“Often, they fall prey to traffickers and slavers ready to take advantage of the most vulnerable. It is estimated that one Nepalese in 100 is subject to some form of slavery today,” she writes.

So, did the Nation get the story wrong by calling the 12 Nepalese women sex slaves?

The story is detailed and well documented. It tallies well with information published elsewhere. The Saturday Nation managing editor is right: There is nothing to apologise for.