New Delhi, Sept. 20: A top official of Kathmandu police was in Delhi in the second week of September to seek the help of Indian security agencies in rescuing Nepalese girls who had been trafficked to Syria on false promises of lucrative jobs in Dubai but were working as domestic helps.

Some of these girls were allegedly sold as sex slaves to Islamic State militants.

Acting on a complaint from the family of a woman who had been trafficked to Syria and is working as a domestic help, Nepal police arrested two traffickers in June who were part of the international trafficking racket.

"During interrogation, the two traffickers confessed that several Nepalese women were trafficked to the war zone in Syria over the past one-and-a-half years. They told us the victims were first taken to Delhi and were later trafficked to Syria via Dubai on the pretext of providing jobs in bars and beauty parlours," Hemant Malla Thakuri, chief of Nepal's Central Investigation Bureau, told The Telegraph over phone.

The gang claimed to have sold the victims for $7,000 each.

Thakuri said the Indira Gandhi International Airport had become a transit point for alleged traffickers supplying girls to Gulf countries.

"We are in touch with Indian security agencies, especially the Intelligence Bureau and the CBI, to crack down on such organised international human trafficking racket and have also sought help in rescuing these women from Syria and Gulf countries," Thakuri said.

He said the two Nepali women, allegedly raped by a Saudi diplomat, were trafficked in April this year by criminals on the promise of better jobs in Dubai but were sold to an illegal placement agency in Delhi.

Thakuri said Nepal police had been able to establish contact with one trafficked woman in Syria whose family had first lodged a complaint with them. "Efforts are on to bring her back to Nepal," he said, adding a probe was under way to ascertain how many girls had been trafficked to Syria from Dubai.

Every year, between 10,000 and 15,000 Nepalese girls are trafficked to West Asia and to some South African countries. "The problem is we have an open border and traffickers take advantage of it," Thakuri added.

In July, Delhi police had rescued 21 Nepalese women, aged between 19 and 24, who were to be sent to Dubai to be pushed into flesh trade. The two traffickers, Vishnu Tamang, 29, and Ishwor Neupane, 31, both Nepalese nationals, have been arrested.