Nepal Government leaves freed slaves to starve Thousands of bonded labourers and their families are without homes, jobs or food since the Nepal Government's proclamation on 17 July 2000 declared bonded labour ended. Deprived of access to land they are being left to starve.

More than 2,300 agricultural bonded labourers in the country's Western District have been forced from their homes, and the local non-governmental organisation Backward Society Education (BASE) estimates a further 4,000 families will deluge Kailali and Kanchanpur Districts when the monsoon season ends.

The local NGO describes the situation as acute with medicines, food and shelter for the freed slaves in short supply. Infections diseases, such as encephalitis, have struck areas where bonded labourers are seeking refuge. Despite the Government's promise of relief, none has materialised. And local NGOs are struggling to provide tents, rice, medicines and other related relief work.

Bonded labourers' protests, which spread from Kailali District in the west to the country's capital Kathmandu this summer, provoked the 17 July declaration. In order to remind the Government that the recent declaration has not solved their problems, about 20 freed families are demonstrating in Kailali for the fulfilment of their demands.