Shillong: Meghalaya High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Yaqoob Mir has said that North East has emerged as hub of human trafficking in India.

Delivering a key-note address at the 2nd Regional Consultation on Child Right in the Context of Human Trafficking in North East India at Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, the Chief Justice said, Unemployment, poverty, migration for search of jobs are some of the reasons of human trafficking in North East.”

“Introspection is required to meet the challenge of human trafficking,” he added.

Voicing concern over the human trafficking, the Chief Justice called for collective responsibility of stakeholders, state legal services authority and police to take care of the rights of the children and save them from being exploited.

Noting that Assam has the highest number of trafficking cases in India with 1494 cases, Mir said Assam accounts for 22 percent of the total reported cases of trafficking as per report released by National Crime Records Bureau 2015.

Mir said Meghalaya, a state in Northeast India, has the largest number of child trafficking in the coal mines areas of Jaintia Hills after Assam.

“Thousands of children are working in hazardous conditions in the coal mines,” the Chief Justice said.

Source: Kashmir Media Service