If the passenger is returned from the immigration, a letter to the ministry asking for investigation through the police, help in controlling smugglingThe documents of passengers arriving at Tribhuvan International Airport on visit visas for departure to different countries are found to be suspicious and are being 'offloaded' without giving permission for departure.

As the documents are suspicious, they are being returned (offloaded) without investigation from the airport without giving permission for departure, now the immigration department and the airport immigration office will entrust the police from there to investigate such persons .

In the same way, the police have been instructed to investigate the fact that the return ticket of the double air ticket is also canceled after passing the immigration security check after paying the money in the plan of the gang.

Director General of Immigration Department Ramchandra Tiwari held a press conference on Sunday and clarified that more efforts have been started to improve visit visas to make them systematic, transparent and law-abiding, and among them, travel permission will now be given based on 'valid documents and not on the basis of the passenger's status' . Just a few days ago, the department called representatives of the airport police, Human Trafficking Investigation Bureau, Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office, Narcotics Control Bureau and other private organizations active in the airport to discuss the matter of making the movement through immigration safe, orderly and legal.

"In order to make the immigration administration agile, efficient and orderly, we have made some of the previous provisions timely and we have also tightened some of them keeping in mind security sensitivities," Director General Tiwari said.

In addition to the documents submitted to obtain a visa, it was found that the tickets were canceled immediately upon returning after passing the immigration check, and the police have been instructed to investigate.' He has now submitted a 6-month valid passport, a visa for the destination country (in the case of countries with non-arrival facilities), two-way air tickets, hotel booking documents in the destination country, or documents that they will keep if they have relatives or friends. If you went on someone's invitation, sponsor letter and if not, you can have at least 500 US dollars worth of foreign currency.

Moreover, no discrimination or questioning can be done at the airport based on the economic or other status of a person. Earlier, some passengers were returned from the airport after checking their 'character' by the immigration staff. In the same way, in the matter of managing the residence of the relatives in the destination country, if the criteria of "three-generation leader" has been included, now it has been removed and anyone who knows them can manage the residence during the visit and the details of its generations have been arranged .

There is opposition from the public level saying that gangs are taking power and power centers in their hands and running extortion business in an organized manner under the cover of visit visa. However, it has not been thoroughly researched . This is the reason why the department has made efforts to improve some of the 'impractical' and 'unfair' standards of the past by making them up-to-date.

Under this, the department has also sought the support of ministries and agencies related to travel, security, tourism and foreign studies and employment to control the business of organized gangs that send Nepalese citizens to different countries. In order to stop extortion in collusion with the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration staff and punish the culprits, the department has sent a letter to various ministries and Rashtra Bank on Friday to regularly monitor/regulate organizations related to foreign employment and studies, banks/financial institutions and related government mechanisms. Tiwari, director general of the

department, said that to make the foreign travel organized and transparent through the visit visa, the relevant agencies have to fulfill their responsibilities in the same way, so a letter has been sent for the necessary assistance.

The facts that the gangs, especially with the help of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration staff, have been extorting money from visiting visas with the connivance of individuals and organizations related to airlines, educational counseling centers, travel agencies, foreign exchange matching centers, manpower, etc.  However, the 'extortion of visit visas' has not been stopped as the government mechanisms have not brought micro-monitoring, regulation, monitoring and action to the culprits.

Visit visa must be round-trip (double ticket). However, it has been found that airlines and travel agencies colluded to cancel the tickets for the coming date after the person going to the setting has been checked by the immigration after departure. An official said that the department has asked the police to investigate this.

Tribhuvan Airport Immigration Chief and Joint Secretary Tirtharaj Bhattarai, travel agency operator Balkrishna Khadka and two other middlemen were arrested by the authority on 7th June 2082 on the charge of extortion under the cover of visit visa. Before that, 22 years ago, a case was filed in District Court Kathmandu against 22 people, including nine employees of airport immigration, on the charge of extortion on visit visas. However, investigation could not be conducted on more persons and organizations considered suspicious in this case.

Last time, all four people including joint secretary Bhattarai were left in attendance and the investigation is continuing by the authority. In the same case, RSVP and RPP have been boycotting the House by demanding that there should be an inquiry/investigation against the Home Minister Ramesh Akhtar and his secretariat staff and for that a high-level judicial commission or a parliamentary committee should be formed. In the beginning, the main opposition Maoist also blocked the House by demanding the same, and backed away from the opposition by agreeing to the formation of an administrative mechanism to give policy suggestions on the Maoist visit visa issue. According to the demand of the Maoists, the government formed an 'Administrative Committee' comprising the employees of various ministries under the leadership of former Chief Secretary Shankardas Vairagi.

However, saying that the committee has no justification and meaning, the RASWP and RPPA have said that the agitation will continue in the House until the demand is met. On the other hand, the Vairagi-led committee has not been given the right to investigate and recommend action to those involved in the crime. This committee has a mandate to suggest policy, legal and administrative reforms.

Since then, the department has started some initiatives to remove the 'unfair' and 'impractical' standards imposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs in the past in the name of visit visa and to improve the immigration administration . For that purpose, efforts have been started to make the travel through visit visa easy, dignified and orderly by writing to various ministries and agencies, said Tiwari, director general of the department.

"In the past, the government may have brought some standards as necessary, but various questions were raised about them, then now the review and updating of the implementation aspects of the past standards and regulation/monitoring and action have been carried forward simultaneously," Tiwari said, "Since the immigration administration is the last point for foreign travel, everyone's attention was drawn here, but there are dozens of other government/private and non-government mechanisms related to travel, whether or not these mechanisms work according to the law." There is no monitoring and regulation, now we have sent a letter to the concerned mechanisms to ensure effective monitoring of whoever has the responsibility-role.

Department has sent a letter to the National Bank to regulate the stamps placed on the passports of travelers by banks/financial institutions and similar centers.

Before leaving the destination country on a visit visa, the department has increased its vigilance after it was found that some passengers did not have foreign currency as mentioned in the print during the check at the airport immigration . According to an employee who is investigating this matter, the party sending the visit visa stamps the passport and collects the money mentioned in it, and since the traveling party does not disclose this matter, the collection transaction remains secret.

Likewise, the department has written a letter to the Ministry of Tourism requesting to control illegal and unfair activities of travel agencies and airlines. The conclusion of the department is that the travel agency submits fake documents and arranges from the visa process to the departure, but there is no monitoring by the relevant government mechanism. In the same setting of the travel agency, it has also been found that various airlines charge money and send Nepali people on visit visas in 'groups'. According to

sources, the airport immigration and police teams were deployed on surveillance in the third week of July after receiving information about sending people to travel agencies and airlines. A day later, after two airlines leaked the information about the gang's departure to UAE and Saudi, it was found that both the airlines had detained and sent back the 'abductees' without giving them a boarding pass . Then an airline flew to UAE with only half the passengers. According to the department, a letter has been sent to the Ministry of Tourism to bring it under the scope of regulation after the collusion of travel agencies and airlines in this setting. Similarly, the official of the department informed that a letter has been sent to the Ministry of Education to closely monitor the illegal activities of educational counseling centers. On the other hand, the department has also adopted a policy of making the provisions of visit visas more systematic and transparent, since they have made the provisions of visit visas in a bad way in the past.

When Ram Bahadur Thapa was the Minister of Home Affairs, on 26 October 2076, a ministerial decision was made to allow departure only after analyzing the situation of Gulf countries, Malaysia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, African countries and similar risks. In the same decision, it was mentioned that valid passport/visa, round trip air ticket, boarding pass to the final destination, proof of sponsor, foreign currency worth $250, proof of hotel booking, self-declaration as required. Then the immigration department asked to include the reimbursement/voucher of the dollar amount in the bank in case of going on tourist visa on 077 Jan 11. That provision also became controversial.

Then, during the time of the then Home Minister Balkrishna Khan, on 27 Chait 2078, the 17-point provisions which were brought against the spirit of the constitution and the law were repealed 2 years ago . On January 9, 2080, the Ministry of Home Affairs had abolished 17 points and brought 6 points as a standard for collusion based on that provision. Narayankaji Shrestha was the home minister when the standards were brought. 6 points Passport with validity period of at least 6 months, visa of the destination country, two-way air ticket, proof of hotel booking for the duration of the visit, or proof of hotel booking for the duration of the visit or if staying with relatives without hotel booking, citizenship certificate or any other certificate that reveals the relationship within three generations of the same household, invitation letter from a government or non-governmental organization covering the entire cost of the visit or proof of cash equivalent of at least five hundred US dollars or cash or debit-credit card and United Arab Emirates, The standard was issued stating that when visiting Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Saudi on a visit visa, self-declaration will be required and the burden of proof of the details attached to the self-declaration will be on the person concerned.

However, it was also made tough by the immigration and the collusion of gangs and the process of extortion from passengers did not stop . Now, the department has started facilitating travel by not needing three generations of information to stay with relatives when going abroad. However, the department has informed that a decision has yet to be taken from the ministry. Similarly, the airlines said that to stop the trend of sending people to the airport, they should give the boarding pass 1 hour before and send them to the immigration security check and if this is not done, they are preparing to return such passengers without security check . Director General Tiwari about traveling now on the visit  He also clarified that those who were offloaded (returned) if found to be flawed in the documents, will now be handed over to the police for further investigation. "People who have been offloaded are going through the wrong process again, now if they are going to go illegally, they are being entrusted to the police for investigation, not offloading."

In the reports of the government task force, although there is an increasing number of people going on visit visas, many weaknesses in the management from the airport have been pointed out, but no initiatives have been taken to improve them. According to the report, there is a lack of coordination between the immigration office at the airport, the airline company, the airport police, other investigating police agencies, the tourist police, the military, and the investigation department. Similarly, to solve the problem related to the visit visa, between the Immigration Department and the Airport Immigration Office, there is a tendency to step aside because there is no clear responsibility of who will do what.