Nepal police have arrested two people for their alleged involvement in trafficking a woman and her daughter to Turkey last year where they were sold for 2000 lira. The mother-daughter duo has already been rescued by the Nepali government. 

The arrest of the two, one of them is a 32-year-old woman, came on Tuesday and Wednesday from the capital Kathmandu, Nepal. The arrests were made by the Anti Human Trafficking Bureau of Nepal Police. 

Police said the accused lured the mother and her daughter, promising them decent jobs in Turkey, and had taken NPR 10,000 from them. However, when they reached Turkey last year, they realized that they had been tricked into trafficking. 

Nepal authorities and its mission in Turkey swiftly acted soon after they received the complaint. With the help of Turkish authorities, the mother was brought back to Nepal in November last year, and the daughter was rescued three months later in January this year. 

Human trafficking is a growing criminal syndicate in Nepal. A report in The Kathmandu Post estimated around 1.5 million Nepali workers are vulnerable to the threat. The lack of economic opportunities and a devastated economy after the 2015 earthquake made the country a perfect target for human traffickers. 

Nepal Police, on average, register 200-300 human trafficking cases annually. But the actual cases, most of which often go unreported, could be a thousand times higher than the reported. 

Over the years, the government has taken several measures to check the problem but it could take years of proactive measures, coupled with adequate coordination at the international level, to reduce the scope of this worst form of human tragedy.