Child Slavery: Rich Brits Buying Kids Who Survived Nepal Quake

Child slaves sold for $7,500 on streets: Report

Child survivors of the Nepal earthquake are being sold to wealthy British families as household slaves, according to a report.

A UK tabloid investigator, “posed as a wealthy Sikh living in Britain with a sick wife and elderly mother looking for a housemaid or houseboy,” was offered boys and girls as young as ten for as little as $7,500 (£5,250) by a gang selling children of Nepalese refugees and poor Indian families from the state of Bihar “like cattle.”

“Take a Nepalese to England. They are good people. They are good at doing housework and they’re very good cooks. No one is going to come after you,” slave trader Makkhan Singhtold the the undercover reporter. “We have supplied lads who have gone on to the UK.”

When asked how difficult it was to buy children, Singh, who referred to the kids as stock, replied: “India is flooded with boys. Nepal has been destroyed and all the Nepalese are here.

“We go to the poor parents, we talk to them, we do a deal,” he added.

“Minimum three years you’ve got to keep them here. Train them, make them work for you here. Get them into a routine. Then you can start getting documents for them. If you want my advice, take a 12 or 13-year-old.”

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Thousands of Houses Damaged, Crops Destroyed by Large Hail in Vietnam

Hailstones measuring up to 15 cm batter Vietnam province

Some 1,000 houses were damaged and 100 hectares of crops destroyed in Vietnam’s Tuyen Quang province on Sunday in the region’s worst hailstorm in 30 years, said a report.

Huge hailstones fell for eight minutes early Sunday, punching holes roofs and injuring farmers on their way to work.

On Monday, hailstorms damaged about 4,300 houses in the northern highlands and 90 others in the Central Highlands Tuesday, “while a storm destroyed more houses in the south.”

Crops were reportedly destroyed in Ha Lang and Ha Quang Districts.

“In Dong Nai Province near Ho Chi Minh City, a rainstorm, thought to be the biggest ever to hit the province, collapsed or blew off the roofs of more than 230 houses and damaged crops,” said a report.