Tripura: 47 children missing from refugee camp

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Tripura: 47 children missing from refugee camp

Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Friday, November 9, 2007 (Kanchanpur)

In a shocking case of child trafficking, 47 children have gone

missing from a refugee camp in north Tripura.

Seven of them have returned in the last with stories of child labour.

Kanchanpur in north Tripura is the home to thousands of refugees from

Mizoram since 1997. But now it has become a zone of missing children.

Since 2002 Biradamani Reang had been visiting these refugee camps in

search of children, promising to give them an education.

Reang, a government employee in neighbouring Assam, allegedly got

documents signed by several parents who did not realise they were

declaring their children as orphans. He managed to take away 47

children in all between the age of 5 and 15 years.

''They told me my daughter will be there till graduation and will

come back after 3 years. They told me that I can go and meet her but

where are they,'' asked a worried parent.

Reang has disappeared and all that the parents have is the name of an

orphanage, the Ananda Marga Children's Home. But there is no address.

With no news of the children the families filed a missing report on

October 11. Seven children returned recently but with horror stories.

One of them, taken in 2001, was in the Ananda Marg ashram in

Shillong. He says he worked as a domestic help.

''I was taken to a Shillong ashram. I have worked as a cleaner in

houses,'' said a boy.

The Tripura police now confirm it is a case of child trafficking with

a network spreading to West Bengal.

''Earlier it didn't come as human trafficking issue, reason being

that the guardians of these children they had themselves willingly

taken their wards but now as the events show it appears that they

were not taken to any school, they were engaged in domestic work and

for other kinds of labour,'' said DGP, Tripura.

Govt apathy

The central office of Anand Marg in Kolkata termed the allegations as

baseless.

''Those who are spreading this news are trying to malign Anand Marg.

We haven't said we don't know the whereabouts of the children; there

are six hundred, seven hundred such centres. We are trying to locate

them,'' said Anand Marg Education Secretary.

Refugee camps have always been vulnerable to trafficking.

Earlier, in lower Assam, girls from adivasi refugee camps taken to

Delhi by placement agencies have gone missing. Trafficking across the

border into Bangladesh is also common.

The people here are refugees in their own country. Their story is of

apathy and neglect. Successive governments haven't been able to

rehabilitate them nor have they provided basic necessities or even

security.

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070032284