KATHMANDU, Feb 29
Fed up with the Maoist insurgency, Ganga Bahadur Kshetri of Laharepeepal, Baglung district made his way to Belgium in November 2004, in search of greener pastures.
Kshetri, a 36-year-old college graduate and permanent teacher at a secondary school, managed to get political asylum on the basis of which he received a residence permit. The permit expired in January 2007.
"Suddenly, police raided my grocery shop at Ostende in November 2007, and arrested me when I failed to produce a residence permit," he said.
"I fought a legal battle to get a permanent residence permit, spending more than Rs 1 million in the process," he said. "But I lost the case."
He was deported from Belgium on January 17, 2008 after being detained at an "illegal center" for two months.
He currently lives in Kathmandu with his Belgian girlfriend with whom he getting married so that he can qualify for a permanent residence permit in Belgium where he has already made a business investment of more than Rs 4 million.
Kshetri's tale is not an unfamiliar one. At least four Nepalis are sent back every week from different countries for different reasons.
Navin Kumar Ghimire, Director General of the Department of Immigration (DoI), said Nepalis were deported mainly for overstaying their visas, engaging in criminal activities or being refused entry on arrival.
Most of the deportations take place from Western countries where a huge number of Nepalis are thought to be overstaying their visas because of the allure of handsome salaries and a brighter future.
According to data compiled by DoI, 226 Nepalis were sent back from more than two dozen countries in 2007, as against 297 deported in 2006.
The United Kingdom tops the list of countries deporting Nepalis, with 145 and 61 Nepalis returned from there in 2006 and 2007 respectively.
Singapore and Germany sent home 47 and 27 Nepalis respectively in 2007. In 2006, the numbers were 45 and 33.
Belgium, the USA and Malaysia are also among top countries for deporting Nepalis for various reasons.
"The main reason for deportation is overstaying of visas or non-possession of documents to prove their identity," said Dr. Madan Kumar Bhattarai, Nepali ambassador to Germany.
According to Bhattarai, the German authorities ask the German mission in Nepal to verify the identity of detainees before approaching the Nepali mission to obtain travel documents for them.
The number of Nepali workers leaving for foreign lands is far higher than the numbers reported arriving, according to DoI data.
According to the figures, in 2007 a total of 476,456 Nepalis left for overseas countries while only 367,494 were reported to have reached their destinations. In 2006, the number of Nepalis departing and arriving stood at 420,396 and 311,281 respectively.
According to him, immigration officials will investigate the passports, other travel documents and citizenship certificates of deportees after releasing them on bail ranging from Rs 5,000 to 95,000 depending on the reason for deportation.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
"They will be acquitted once their documents are verified to be genuine," Ghimire of DoI said, "We will take action as per existing laws if the documents they were carrying are found to be fake."
The punishment for violating Nepal's immigration laws is five years' imprisonment or a fine of Rs 50,000 or both.
Source: THE KATHMANDU POST
