This undated photo shows migrant workers boarding a Qatar Airlines flights at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu.
Photo Courtesy: Center for the Study of Labor and Mobility
KATHMANDU: A racket has been sending Nepali workers to different job destinations in the Middle East and Malaysia by preparing labor approvals on a fake visit visa.
The Immigration Office at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) has been returning aspiring workers with fake visas from the airport. Last week, the immigration office returned 57 Nepali workers, including 17 women, who were heading to Kuwait.
According to Gogan Bahadur Hamal, chief of the TIA Immigration Office, these Nepali workers had valid labor approvals even though their visas were fake. “We returned 57 Kuwait-bound Nepalis as their visas were fake,” Hamal added.
The TIA Immigration Office had returned 11 Nepalis with fake visas in the last week of November also. In October, it had returned 24 Nepalis from the airport.
“We have notified the matter to the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE). It may be because they lack the mechanism to check the authenticity of the visa,” Hamal said. “Recruitment companies are also involved in this. But workers don’t name them.”
The main purpose of Nepalis heading to foreign countries with a visit visa is employment.
Dandu Raj Ghimire, the director general of DoFE, said the department was studying how labor approval was issued on fake visas. “We have launched an internal study. The department will take action against all those found guilty,” he added.
Not only the visit visa, the racket is also preparing other visas and even income statements of banks, said Ghimire. “It is becoming difficult to take action against the racket as victims don’t give any information on where these documents are made,” Ghimire said. “They come to us to file complaints, but they don’t have proof of where these documents are made.”
The DoFE receives around 50 complaints about fake visas every month. Officials of the DoFE say the racket has been charging workers as much as Rs 100,000 for making fake visas and bank statements. According to police, immigration officers at the TIA pocket as much as Rs 55,000 from workers carrying fake visas. Similarly, recruitment companies and agents have been found charging Rs 300,000 to Rs 1.1 million per worker, depending on the country.
Data from the DoFE shows TIA Immigration Office returned 4,720 workers carrying fake visas in the fiscal year 2022/23 with the help of the Human Trafficking Investigation Bureau. Likewise, more than 1,500 have been returned from the airport in the first six months of the current fiscal year. The Human Trafficking Investigation Bureau has deputed a team at TIA to control human trafficking through visit visas.
Hamal said the number of youths with fake visit visas has come down after police busted the racket which also included immigration officers last month.
Data compiled by the Department of Immigration shows 170,000 Nepalis left for foreign countries on visit visas in 2022. The number increased to around 200,000 in 2023. About 30% of them left for the UAE.
A study conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs showed the objective of 90% of Nepalis leaving the country on visit visas is employment. The Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security is questioning the role of the staffers of the Department of Immigration in all this.
A separate study conducted by the labor ministry shows agents of the racket sending workers on visit and individual visas are spread throughout the country.
Likewise, a recent study conducted by the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office showed that 246 youths out of 1,500 heading to foreign countries on visit visas were carrying fake visas.
The racket has also been found preparing fake income statements for youths heading to foreign job destinations on visit visas. The government allows individuals with an annual income of at least Rs 600,000 to travel to Gulf countries and Malaysia. Nepalis who have traveled to at least two countries can leave for other countries on visit visas. The racket is preparing fake documents to facilitate youths whose annual income is below the limit prescribed by the government.
