After the Saudi administration increased pressure on the Nepali Embassy to take the Myanmar citizens who were in prison to Nepal, it was revealed that they used handwritten Nepali passports.
It has been revealed that more than 200 Myanmar citizens have reached Saudi Arabia on Nepali passports. They are currently in a Saudi jail. After the Saudi administration increased pressure on the Nepali embassy to take the Myanmar citizens who were in jail to Nepal, it was revealed that they used handwritten Nepali passports.
Naresh Vikram Dhakal, the Nepali ambassador to Saudi Arabia, informed about this matter in the meeting of the ambassadors on Wednesday. In coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Immigration Department held a meeting of ambassadors, labor counselors and labor assistants from 9 countries to discuss the problems seen in the visit visa.
"Myanmar citizens have been in Saudi Jeddah jail for a long time, they have been using handwritten Nepali passports," an ambassador who participated in the meeting says, quoting Dhakal's statement, "Saudi has arrested them because they do not have visas, and some have been released on bail". We came to know about this incident after Saudi told us to facilitate them to send them to Nepal. "We have asked for updated details of which passports were issued from where and when," Foreign Spokesperson Lok Bahadur Paudel Chhetri told Kantipur, "We can say more only after the details are received." According to the information received by Kantipur, out of the 200 people, a passport holder named Krishna Bahadur Shrestha went to work for Sarco Company in Saudi on August 5, 2014. Similarly, a passport holder named Anil Limbu appears to have gone to Saudi Arabia on July 4, 2009. Baburam Khadka seems to have passed away on 7 May 2011 . Jasir Shaikh appears to have passed away on 9 June 2007 . They have been adding visas until their passports have expired . After the expiry of the term, it seems that they are living in an unauthorized status without documents.
The Saudi government has requested them to take them to Nepal and proceed with the action process. "They have entered as Nepali citizens, Nepal should take responsibility for this," says an official of the embassy, quoting the statement of the Saudi administration. The Nepali Embassy requested the Myanmar Embassy in Saudi Arabia to issue travel documents and take charge of its citizens. But Myanmar has been maintaining a stance that it can take charge of them only if they submit proof of their citizenship.
After International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) made Machine Readable Passport (MRP) compulsory, Nepal started issuing MRP from 26th December 2010 . Then the Central Passport Office stopped issuing handwritten passports from 31 March 2010 . However, after being unable to issue MRP to everyone, the department issued handwritten passports valid till 24 November 2015. Some brokers and manpower companies used to change only the photo and send it to foreign employment when handwritten passports could be used. After implementation of MRP, it was stopped . An official of the Ministry of Home Affairs said that whether Myanmar made a passport with Nepali citizenship or only a photograph was pasted on the handwritten passport will be revealed after the investigation .
