KATHMANDU: With the hiking craze for work opportunities in the EU, Canada and the USA thousands of Nepali make those countries their dream workplaces.

Thousands of youths get ready to sacrifice a lot in addition to millions of rupees to reach there which often has been fattening the foreign employment entrepreneurs only.

According to the Foreign Employment Department’s statistics, Portugal, Poland, and Romania are turning into the most sought labor destinations in Europe. Accessibility of residential permit, citizenship and Red Passport issued by Europeans are the tempting factors for most of the Nepalis heading there.

Bureau police have been bringing many Nepalis lying in foreign prison back to Nepal taking help of INTERPOL, and Human Rights Commission.

Central human trafficking investigation bureau of Nepal Police, thinks the craze to reach their early as the crux of the problem. As they want to reach there by hook or crook, they get trapped in both land and sea, the police source says.

The manpower agents take millions from the aspiring youths promising them employment opportunities in good employment agencies and leave them stranded in countries like India, China, Indonesia, and Thailand.

Bureau police have been bringing many Nepalis lying in foreign prison back to Nepal taking help of INTERPOL, and Human Rights Commission.

The victims say: Agents deceive with fake demand  

Gita Adhikari (name changed for anonymity) Jhapa, who was brought to Nepal rescued from Thailand by the Bureau Police two months before, was going to Norway.

Gita had given 1.3 million to the agent and was kept in Bangkok, Thailand for nearly 7 months. She had promised the agent another Rs 900,000 more once she reaches to the USA. She told Khabarhub that all her money is taken by the agent.

“Many women like me are stranded in many countries untold, unheard, in the small cells of Bangkok’s hotels,” she said,“ on the one hand their money is stuck at the agent’s, on the other hand, they have no money to return home.”

She was taken to Thailand through an unidentified agent from Jhapa. The agent had cuckolded her making a fake visa for her.

Similarly, Bhagirath Sanjel (name changed for anonymity) Gorkha was also fouled with the same trick of fake visa and had five months’ stay in Indonesia. He was deceived by Chandradhoj Sanjel of Gorkha. Chandradhoj had promised to take him to Canada.

Raj Kumar Silwal, SP at Human Trafficking Investigation Bureau says that most of the youths aspiring to attractive jobs abroad fall prey to trafficking agents.

The bureau police have informed that it has got the news about the torture 5 stranded Nepalis are going through these days. The victims have shared their stories on social media.

“When they hear about the tempting promises, the youths trust the agents easily,” Silwal told Khabarhub and added,“ they come to the police only after getting stranded.”

He estimates that there are around 500 Nepalis stranded in immigration prisons. He confesses the increment in the cases of fraud and deceit, however, he seeks support from the public to help police enforce the curbing measures more strictly.

“Unless the prospective victims hint or cooperate, it’s really difficult to find out who is smuggling whom.” He fears the programs may fail to bring the desired outcome unless the aspiring labor migrant becoming skeptic about the procedure and cross-check the information they collected.

The bureau had got the complaint about 5 youths stranded in Indonesia 9 months before. They have appealed to the bureau police for a rescue. A few months before, the police had rescued 5 young girls heading to Europe but stranded in Thailand and brought them back to Nepal. Nepal police had also rescued 9 persons from Thailand in July.

The bureau police have informed that it has got the news about the torture 5 stranded Nepalis are going through these days. The victims have shared their stories on social media.

Most of the people arrested in charge of fake documents get severe torture at the prison. They are treated as suspects of criminal networks.

The victims often mum about trafficking

The police say that most of the victims of trafficking mum their suffering. They do not want to make a fuss about the trouble, they got.

Govinda Thapaliya, the spokesperson at the Bureau holds the incomplete and vague information the victims provide responsible for the late response. “Most of the labor migrants use the bureau as the means of getting their money back,” Thapalia told Khabarhub.

He believes the operation against the ‘agent’ can go effective only after the victims speak openly against those agents.

“The brokers have been running human trafficking using Nepali agents,” said the police sources.

More than 500 in foreign prisons

According to the police estimation, more than 500 Nepalis adopting illegal routes to reach their job destinations abroad are lying in foreign jails. They are arrested and held in jail when their visa expires.

“Most of the arrested people are the ones who went to surrender after their visa expired,” said DSP Narahari Regmi, from the Bureau. He told us that the bureau is collecting statistics via consular and other international agencies.

According to DSP Regmi, most of the Nepalis arrested this way undergo severe torture.

Although India used to be the popular exit here, now the traffickers are using other countries like Indonesia, Thailand, China, Bangladesh, and the Maldives. Thus, most of the youths set to weave their dreams of prosperity in the foreign land, fall in the traffickers’ trap and suffer in a foreign jail.

The setting starts from Nepal

In the name of employment, the human traffickers web the setting from Nepal. Arranging the ‘setting’ at the immigration, the traffickers lead the youths astray.

The youths submitting total money are arranged to cross the immigration whereas others are stranded there and blackmailed for more money.

Nepal Police has formally spoken about such ‘settings’ at immigration quite often, yet the curbing measures are still not in sight.