Establishing Human Rights Counselling Centers for Safe Migration

Every year, tens of thousands of women, men, and children cross the India-Nepal border in search of better lives. For many, that journey never ends the way they hoped. Estimates suggest that around 50 women are trafficked from Nepal to India every single day, and the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal has flagged that approximately 1.5 million Nepalis remain at serious risk of being trafficked. These are not abstract statistics – they represent real people, mostly young women and girls, who are lured across one of the world’s most porous international borders. So how do governments and civil society fight back? One of the most effective answers has emerged not from courtrooms or detention centres, but from human rights counselling centres placed strategically at border crossing points. These centres represent a shift from a purely enforcement-driven model to one that is rights-based, preventive, and deeply human.

Why the India-Nepal border is so vulnerable 🔗

The border between India and Nepal stretches approximately 1,850 kilometres. It is open and largely unregulated under the 1950 Peace and Friendship Treaty, which allows citizens of both nations to cross freely without passports or visas. While this treaty was originally designed to foster goodwill and economic cooperation, it has become a significant vulnerability when it comes to human trafficking.

The absence of mandatory documentation requirements means traffickers can move victims across the border with minimal risk of detection. The terrain itself adds to the problem – many crossing points are remote, poorly monitored, and difficult to police. Traffickers have exploited this for decades, using false promises of employment, education, or even marriage to lure vulnerable Nepali women and girls into India, where they are forced into sexual exploitation, bonded labour, or domestic servitude.

The National Human Rights Commission of Nepal recorded that 35,000 people were trafficked in a single reporting period, with women and girls between the ages of 11 and 25 being at the highest risk. Poverty, caste-based discrimination, limited access to education, and gender inequality in rural communities all compound this vulnerability – and traditional law enforcement responses have struggled to address these deeper causes.

The concept of human rights counselling centres at borders 🔗

Against this backdrop, a rights-based intervention model emerged: the establishment of human rights counselling centres directly at international border points. The core idea is straightforward but powerful. Instead of waiting for trafficking to occur and then attempting a rescue, these centres catch vulnerable individuals before they cross the border. They do this by offering on-the-spot counselling, educating migrants about their legal rights, and alerting them to the specific tactics traffickers use.

These centres are not government run in isolation. They are a direct collaboration between NGOs and local police, which is a critical design feature. NGOs bring the expertise in counselling, rights education, and survivor support. Police provide the legal authority and the ability to act when a trafficking attempt is identified. Together, they create what is essentially a human rights checkpoint – one that operates not through interrogation or detention, but through information, empowerment, and care.

What happens inside a counselling centre 🔗

When a migrant arrives at a border transit point, staff at the counselling centre initiate a conversation. This is not an interrogation. It is a structured, sensitive dialogue designed to understand where the person is going, why they are travelling, and whether they have made informed decisions about their journey. Counsellors assess whether the person shows signs of being trafficked – such as having no travel documents, appearing distressed, being accompanied by someone who controls their movement, or being unable to speak freely.

If no red flags are identified, the migrant receives information on safe migration practices, including their rights under Indian and Nepali law, and is free to continue. If concerns are raised, the centre provides immediate counselling, connects the person with legal aid, and coordinates with police for further investigation. In cases where trafficking is actively underway, these centres have directly facilitated the rescue of victims and the identification of traffickers.

Maiti Nepal: A leading example of this model 🔗

The most well-documented example of this approach in the India-Nepal corridor comes from Maiti Nepal, a nonprofit organisation founded in 1993. Maiti Nepal was established by a group of socially committed professionals to protect Nepali girls and women from crimes including domestic violence, trafficking for forced prostitution, and child labour. Over the years, it has evolved into one of the most significant anti-trafficking organisations operating along the India-Nepal border.

With support following the 2015 Nepal earthquakes, Maiti Nepal strengthened its capacity and now operates 18 centres at critical points across Nepal and the surrounding country borders. These centres serve a dual function: they act as both transit homes for rescued individuals and as preventive counselling points for migrants who are still in transit.

Transit homes at key border points 🔗

Maiti Nepal operates transit homes at several key locations along the eastern border, including Kakarbhatta, Pashupatinagar, and Biratnagar – all identified as high-risk transit points for trafficking. These transit homes provide safe shelter, counselling, medical check-ups, and non-formal education to rescued girls, while also working to trace their parents or guardians. Importantly, Maiti Nepal deploys surveillance teams at these checkpoints who actively monitor movement across the border.

The results of this border presence have been measurable. Maiti Nepal prevented 195 women from crossing the border to India at the Pashupatinagar transit point in a six-month period alone, and rescued 18 women directly from traffickers during the same time. These are not one-off successes – they are the outcome of a sustained, systematic presence at the border that combines human rights awareness with active monitoring.

Caritas Nepal’s Information Communication Centres 🔗

Another instructive model comes from Caritas Nepal, which has operated Information Communication Centres in districts bordering India, specifically Jhapa and Morang. Jhapa is identified by the Government of Nepal as one of the most heavily trafficked areas in the country, making it an ideal location for preventive intervention.

These village-based centres function as community-level access points for safe migration information. They disseminate news about trafficking risks, provide basic counselling to survivors of unsafe migration and domestic violence, and advise individuals on how to access legal support. Caritas Nepal has also used these centres to coordinate rescue operations – in documented cases, the centres have helped trace missing children and facilitate their safe return home.

Awareness and outreach beyond the centres 🔗

Caritas Nepal’s approach extends beyond the physical centres. Radio programmes such as Sachetana (meaning “awareness”) have been used to broadcast stories from victims’ families and messages from legal experts, reaching communities in remote areas where direct outreach is difficult. An information booklet on safe migration has also been distributed across the project areas. This multi-channel strategy ensures that the message of safe migration and trafficking awareness reaches people long before they ever arrive at the border.

Why this model works: The rights-based difference 🔗

Traditional anti-trafficking responses have largely relied on a raid-rescue-rehabilitation cycle. While rescue operations are necessary, they are reactive – they intervene after trafficking has already occurred. Critics have pointed out that this model ignores the fact that trafficking is fundamentally a socio-economic problem, not just a criminal one. Human rights counselling centres offer a fundamentally different logic: they prevent trafficking by addressing the information gap and empowering individuals before exploitation begins.

There are several reasons why this rights-based approach is more effective in the border context. First, it reaches people at the point of maximum vulnerability – the moment they are about to cross an international border. Second, it does not criminalise migrants. Unlike border checkpoints that rely on suspicion and detention, counselling centres treat every person with dignity and provide them with knowledge. Third, it builds a bridge between civil society and law enforcement. The International Organization for Migration has long recognised that NGOs play a crucial role in awareness-raising among potential migrants and capacity-building for governmental institutions in counter-trafficking efforts. The counselling centre model puts this collaboration into direct practice.

Challenges that remain 🔗

Despite the success of these centres, significant challenges persist. The 1,850-kilometre border cannot be fully covered by counselling centres alone. Many remote crossing points remain unwatched, and traffickers are constantly adapting their routes. India and Nepal still lack a formal bilateral anti-trafficking agreement, which limits coordination between law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border. Without such an agreement, even the best-functioning counselling centres operate in a policy vacuum when it comes to cross-border rescue and repatriation.

Funding and sustainability are also ongoing concerns. Most centres depend heavily on international donor support and NGO capacity. If funding is reduced or disrupted, services at border points can be scaled back – leaving vulnerable migrants without access to the very information and counselling that could protect them. Staffing is another issue: counselling centres require trained, culturally sensitive personnel, and recruiting and retaining such staff in remote border areas is difficult.

What other countries can learn from this model 🔗

The human rights counselling centre model is not limited to the India-Nepal context, though that corridor has produced some of the clearest evidence of its effectiveness. The International Organization for Migration advocates for rights-based border management policies that ensure the safety of crisis-affected populations, and the counselling centre model is a practical embodiment of this principle.

For any country dealing with cross-border trafficking, the key lessons are clear. Preventive, rights-based interventions at borders are more sustainable than purely enforcement-driven approaches. NGO-police collaboration is essential – neither can effectively address trafficking alone. And empowering migrants with accurate information about their legal rights and the risks they face is one of the most cost-effective tools available to policymakers.

For Indian law students and policy professionals, this model is particularly relevant. India is both a destination and a transit country for human trafficking, and its open borders with Nepal and Bangladesh create unique challenges. Understanding how counselling centres function at these borders – and how they fit within a broader legal and institutional framework – is essential for anyone interested in human rights policy, criminal justice reform, or migration governance.

What do you think? Can a rights-based, preventive model like human rights counselling centres be effectively scaled up across all of India’s international borders, or does the diversity of border conditions make a one-size-fits-all approach impractical? And given that trafficking is deeply rooted in poverty and inequality, how far can border-level interventions go without broader socio-economic reform?

References

1. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/socialpolicy/2020/10/20/india-and-nepal-must-develop-a-formal-agreement-to-prevent-human-trafficking/
2. https://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/rightsviews/2021/07/08/inadequacy-of-laws-against-cross-cross-border-sex-trafficking-between-nepal-and-india/
3. https://np.usembassy.gov/2023-tip-report/
4. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maiti_Nepal
5. https://www.unicef.org.uk/protecting-children-from-trafficking-nepal-earthquakes/
6. https://tnm.com.np/daughters-maiti-nepal/
7. https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/174-women-rescued-from-eastern-transit-point
8. https://www.caritas.org/2014/03/protecting-nepalese-children-from-trafficking-and-unsafe-migration/
9. https://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/rightsviews/2021/07/08/inadequacy-of-laws-against-cross-border-sex-trafficking-between-nepal-and-india/
10. https://www.iom.int/civil-society-and-ngos
11. https://www.iom.int/humanitarian-border-management