KATHMANDU: Ministry of Home Affairs has booked Pushparam Shahi, the head of the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) Immigration Office, for the investigation after suspicion of collusion in the case of human trafficking through visit visas.

The Ministry of Home Affairs removed Shahi from his duties.

The Ministry has appointed Basudev Ghimire, the director general of the Department of Prison Management, as the head of the International Immigration Office of TIA.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has approved a new procedure to pre-approve visit visas online. However, human traffickers are sending young women from rural areas to Dubai on visit visas and from there to other countries tempting them with lucrative salary.

Although the Human Trafficking Bureau of the police and the Central Bureau of Investigation are investigating the matter, the smuggling process is still not curbed.

According to SP Dan Bahadur Malla, the spokesperson of Human Trafficking and Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police, 227 passengers who were going abroad on visit visas were returned from Tribhuvan International Airport between August 24th and 27th.

The police stopped them from boarding the plane after finding the documents suspicious. SP Malla informed that some of them have been sent to Maiti Nepal and some have been detained and are being investigated.