How disasters create fertile ground for human trafficking

There is seemingly an almost curated web of favourable conditions laid out especially for traffickers.

In 2022, I was part of a police raid where I met a 26-year-old girl who was rescued from an illegal spa operating in Delhi. She said that she was originally from Sindhupalchowk. In fact, her family, which included an ailing father and two younger siblings, was still based there. In 2015, right after Nepal was shaken by one of the worst earthquakes in its history, her family had lost everything. All their savings, livestock and even their house were reduced to rubble. The responsibility of rebuilding came upon her, and in her quest to provide for her family, she was recruited by a group of traffickers posing as well-wishers offering fake promises of a better life.