We Most of the Nepali population living in the San Francisco Bay Area are either asylees and/or undocumented Nepali immigrants or refugees. The approximately 10-year long Maoist movement in Nepal displaced families from their local residences to the larger city as they sought security from the fallout of the conflict. After the government interrogated them, suspecting that these displaced people were potential Maoists, people started fleeing from the country itself to avoid government torture and Maoist action against them. As of today, displaced peoples in Nepal continue to experience violence within their communities, and with the recent discoveries of human trafficking cases in the US, we have found that trafficking agents in Nepal lure displaced Nepali people by convincing them that they have a better future for their family in the US and by convincing them to sell their property to pay them off. The agent collects ...

We Most of the Nepali population living in the San Francisco Bay Area are either asylees and/or undocumented Nepali immigrants or refugees. The approximately 10-year long Maoist movement in Nepal displaced families from their local residences to the larger city as they sought security from the fallout of the conflict. After the government interrogated them, suspecting that these displaced people were potential Maoists, people started fleeing from the country itself to avoid government torture and Maoist action against them. As of today, displaced peoples in Nepal continue to experience violence within their communities, and with the recent discoveries of human trafficking cases in the US, we have found that trafficking agents in Nepal lure displaced Nepali people by convincing them that they have a better future for their family in the US and by convincing them to sell their property to pay them off. The agent collects an advance, adding up to tens of thousands of dollars, that these people must pay back once they arrive in the US. It then takes about six months to a year to reach the US border, and many people die on the way with their family in Nepal never knowing what happened to them. If they reach the US, they are treated as illegal immigrants and enter exploitative working conditions to repay the debt to the trafficking agent. Labor exploitation includes unbearable working conditions (e.g., making less than the minimum wage, having immigration documents held by employers, no vacation or sick time, no breaks, 18-hour workdays, living in the place of employment, etc.), employer threatens (e.g., deportation, termination from employment, separation from family, loss of legal status, and imprisonment), and actual physical and emotional abuse from employers. Often, they are working in very difficult and low paying jobs which don’t even pay enough for them to cover half of their expenses. Nepali community members in the Bay Area work as domestic workers, care givers, restaurant workers and drivers. Every day they see their dreams shattered, many people are not ever able to bring their family to the US or earn enough to regain the property they already lost in Nepal. These people face extreme and chronic stress to survive, some of them have tried to commit suicide.