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# Trafficking
Survivors of Nepal earthquake 'being sold as child slaves in UK'
Children are said to be exchanging hands for as little as €6,500.
CHILD SURVIVORS OF the Nepal earthquake are being sold as slaves in the UK, according to a report by The Sun.
An undercover investigation found that boys and girls as young as 10 years old are being sold for £5,250 (500,000 rupees or €6,580) by gangs operating in the Indian state of Punjab.
A Sun investigator, who posed as a wealthy Sikh living in Britain, met slave trader Makkhan Singh in Jalandhar, a city close to the Nepalese border.
Singh lined up children for him to pick from, saying: “We have supplied lads who have gone on to the UK.
“Take a Nepalese to England. They are good people. They are good at doing housework and they’re very good cooks. No one is going to come after you.”
The gangs also reportedly sell Indian children.
India is flooded with boys. Nepal has been destroyed and all the Nepalese are here.
“We go to the poor parents, we talk to them, we do a deal,” Singh told the reporter.
Almost 9,000 people were killed by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal on 25 April 2015. Millions of people were left needing aid after the disaster.
‘Truly abhorrent’
British Home Secretary Theresa May wants the National Crime Agency to investigate report.
“Child trafficking is a truly abhorrent crime. No child should be forced into slavery.
“That is why we introduced the Modern Slavery Act last year, which included enhanced protections for potential child victims and sentences up to life imprisonment for those guilty,” she said.
Around 1,000 children are believed to have been trafficked into the UK last year.
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