TRANSCRIPT
Madhu Regmi and Yuvraj Pokhrel aren't related... but they are like siblings.
The pair is part of a family of thousands, raised by not-for-profit anti-slavery organisation, Maiti Nepal.
Madhu Regmi says she was a tiny baby.
"I landed there at Maiti Nepal when I was one month old so I don’t know what it’s like in a single family or nuclear family outside, and all the celebrations, whether it's big or small, everything - my schooling, my college, my university, me getting married as an adult, everything happened within Maiti Nepal, so Maiti Nepal is a complete family to me."
Madhu and Yuvraj weren’t trafficked, but Yuvraj says their paths have been shaped by the children and women they grew up with in Nepal, who survived slavery.
"I have closely witnessed those kinds of situations with my eyes, I experienced the stories of the women, how they were treated in the brothels, how they were treated in the workplace when they got trafficked."
The two are now in Australia, studying for a Masters in Business Administration at Charles Darwin University, gathering skills they’ll use to fight human trafficking.
Madhu Regmi again
“It is a very big issue in Nepal, and not just trafficking overseas now, with the post covid era trafficking within a country, domestic trafficking has also been a very severe problem in Nepal so it's been 30 years of our journey working against human trafficking and unsafe migration and it's still a long way to go.”
The founder of Maiti Nepal, Anuradha Koirala says drivers of trafficking include poor access to education and jobs, a gender disparity in Nepal and the open border with India - which gives access shipping routes.
"They say poverty is the cause of trafficking, I say no… It is not poverty, it is due to education… if in Nepal there was free education, compulsory education… then we could not have had this issue"
It's estimated that more than 50 million people are affected by human trafficking worldwide.
The United Nations suggests one in three victims are children.
A 2024 report estimates the profits for modern slavery at 236 billion dollars, an increase of 35 per cent over 10 years.
Jennifer Burn is the director of Anti Slavery Australia
"The numbers globally are horrifying, We know there are children exploited in our global supply chains, in mines extracting minerals used in our phone, working in the food industry and clothing industry, and so on around the world.”
And Ms Burn says they know there are far more victims of trafficking than are currently being reported.
"We don't think that all children are being identified who are at risk of modern slavery because we don't as yet have frameworks in place that recognise the unique circumstances and vulnerabilities of children."
For Madhu and Yuvraj, they hope their studies will give them the tools to make a difference.
