Team Herald
PANJIM: Kenya and Uganda are the countries which are emerging as source States from where trafficking is taking place for commercial sexual exploitation in the country.
According to a study conducted by ARZ (Anyay Rahit Zindagi), titled “Sex Trafficking in Goa: Situation and Intervention (2019-2024),” the newly emerging areas for sex trafficking are Uttar Pradesh for internal trafficking and Kenya and Uganda for cross border trafficking.
In cases involving foreign nationals, traffickers took the victims’ documents under the pretext of providing jobs and in some instances fake Aadhaar cards were issued. The counterfeit Aadhaar cards were created for travelling and staying in hotels and consequently the victims were blackmailed into engaging in commercial sexual exploitation, the report said.
The traffickers in cases of Kenyan and Ugandan nationals used the online website ‘Massage Republic’ to solicit individuals. Most of the girls’ photographs and details were uploaded to the site.
This allows prospective sex buyers to select girls and contact the pimps for their services.
Some of the victims from Kenya also reported becoming pregnant due to forced unsafe sexual activities and broken condoms. The victims were further harassed and tortured after revealing this information to the pimps.
According to the report, the factors that make individuals vulnerable in their home countries and the trafficking methods are similar in both nations and the same network of pimps and accomplices manage the trafficking routes from Kenya and Uganda.
The report said there is a well organised trafficking route from Kenya and Uganda to Bangalore in India and then to Goa.
Individuals are specifically recruited in these countries to identify young girls particularly those who are educated and speak English and especially those who come from dysfunctional families, are unwed mothers, or are facing financial crisis. They are lured with promises of jobs in Goa’s hospitality sector. Most girls trafficked to Goa initially seek better paying employment to support their families or fund their children's education.
The victims in most of the cases were flown to Bangalore or Goa via Dubai or Mumbai. Some victims were given Indian SIM cards to communicate with sex buyers and then trafficker. In some cases where they managed to repay the loan and return to Kenya, due to lack of employment and harassment from the traffickers they were forced to return to India for commercial sexual activities.
The report said that repatriating the victims to Kenya and Uganda was challenging because they often did not have custody of their passports and in some cases their visas had expired. They also did not have the money to book return flight tickets, the report added.
According to the report, as many as 34 victims were rescued during a period from 2019 to 2024. In 2024, eight victims were rescued out of whom two were from Bangladesh, one from Kenya and two from Uganda.
Meanwhile, Arun Pandey, President of Anyay Rahit Zindagi (ARZ) said, “The girls who were rescued were not only from India, but are also being trafficked from countries like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan. The top four States from where the victims are being trafficked in India are Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The challenge before us is that sex trafficking is a borderless phenomenon. It transcends States and countries and therefore it becomes very challenging to combat it.”
”The challenge is how to stop the trafficking and how do we ensure that once they have gone back they come back and participate in our prosecution. If they do not participate then it will lead to acquittal of the accused and will not send strong message to those who are running the business,” he said.