Director General of Immigration Department Ramchandra Tiwari said that since immigration does not only have a role to make foreign travel organized and transparent through visit visas, a letter has been sent to the relevant agencies for necessary assistance.
We use Google Cloud Translation Services. Google requires we provide the following disclaimer relating to use of this service:
This service may contain translations powered by Google. Google disclaims all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.
The Immigration Department has sought the help of related ministries and agencies to control the business of organized gangs who send Nepali citizens to different countries by collecting money under the cover of visit visa.
The department has sent a letter to various ministries and the National Bank to regularly monitor/regulate organizations related to foreign employment and studies, banks/financial institutions and related government mechanisms to stop the organized extortion of the gangs from going on visit visas by taking the employees of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration into their hands and punishing the culprits.
Director General of Immigration Department Ramchandra Tiwari said that since immigration does not only have a role to make foreign travel organized and transparent through visit visas, the relevant agencies also have to fulfill their responsibilities, so a letter has been sent for the necessary support .
The facts that gangs, especially with the help of Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration staff, have been extorting money from visiting visas with the collusion 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 when the government mechanisms have not brought the culprits under the scope of careful monitoring, regulation, monitoring and action.
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 May 2082 on charges of extortion under the guise of visit visa.
Before that, 2 years ago, a case was filed against 22 people, including nine employees of the airport immigration office, in the district court of Kathmandu for extorting 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 Ukhtar and the staff of his secretariat and for that a high-level judicial commission or a parliamentary committee should be formed.
In the beginning, the main opposition Maoists 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 case . According to the demands of the Maoists, the government formed an 'administrative committee' consisting of employees of various ministries under the leadership of former chief secretary Shankardas Bairagi.
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 Bairagi-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 visas and to improve the immigration administration . For that reason, efforts have been started to make the travel through visit visa easy, dignified and orderly by correspondence with 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 together," 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 connected with travel, and these mechanisms work according to the law. We have sent a letter to the concerned mechanisms to ensure that there is effective monitoring of the existing/non-existent monitoring and regulation. The
department has sent a letter to the Rashtra Bank to regulate the stamps placed on the passports of travelers by banks/financial institutions and similar centers. During the check at the airport immigration before departure to the destination country on a visit visa, the department increased its vigilance after it was found that some passengers did not have foreign currency as mentioned in the print.
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 by himself, and since the traveling party does not disclose this matter, the collection transaction remains secret. Similarly, 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 related government mechanism. In the same setting of
travel agency, it has also been found that various airlines charge money and send Nepali people on visit visas in 'groups'. According to the 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, both airlines were found to have detained and sent back the "obtains" 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 the visit visa in a bad manner 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 refund/voucher of bank statement 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 provision which was brought against the spirit of the constitution and the law was abolished 2 years ago .
On January 9, 2080, the Ministry of Home Affairs canceled 17 points and introduced 6 new standards on the basis that extortion was being carried out in collusion with 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 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 preparing for travel so that when going abroad to stay with relatives, there is no need for three-generation details. 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 on the visit now traveling 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. "The people who were offloaded are going through the wrong process again, now if they are going to go illegally, they are entrusted to the police for investigation, not offloading." 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 visit visa, between the Immigration Department and the Airport Immigration Office, there is a tendency to shirk because there is no clear responsibility of who will do what, although it has been pointed out that there is a need to clearly define the rights and responsibilities, but it has not been done.
