Five hundred kilometres is a long way to walk when you are eight, and longer the second time.
A call to the Bahraich CHILDLINE centre reported seven children from the district held in bondage in brick factories in Kathmandu. They had been taken three months earlier on false promises of wages.
They had escaped once. They travelled five hundred kilometres to the border and were recaptured there.
Three DEHAT team members left for Nepalgunj the same day. With police and officials on both sides of the border, they took custody of all seven.
All seven were traced to their families and returned.
Three of them were brothers, sons of Sh. Jagram of Turhani Rajjab. They were enrolled in school, with fees, uniforms and books met under Missing Child Alert.
Their father opened a shop in the village. He earns three to four times what he earned before.
The rescue took a day. What made it possible was a helpline number that had reached the village, and a protection relationship that already worked across an international border.
They escaped once, walked five hundred kilometres, and were caught at the border.
The Border Does Not Stop Trafficking
Cross-border protection runs on relationships with police and officials on both sides, maintained in the years when nothing is happening.