The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police on Friday said that Chinese and South Korean men seeking Nepali girls were found paying as much as Rs 2.5 million to marriage bureaus in Nepal to marry young and beautiful local girls. 

Making public three individuals allegedly involved in ‘trafficking’ girls to China and Korea, at the CIB office, Maharajgunj on Friday, CIB Director DIG Hemanta Malla said, “The foreign men would pay Rs 1.5 million to 2.5 million to marry girls from Nepal, the amount depending upon the men’s frailties such as old age and physical disability, and the girls’ age, complexion and the like.” 

Tipped off by a source, CIB on Tuesday raided various marriage bureaus in Kathmandu and booked Chheru Sherpa aka Pasang, 52, of Makalu-5, Sankhuwasabha, the operator of Chheru International Marriage Bureau Pvt Ltd; Park Hee Chang, 61, of Seoul, Incheon, a Korean hotel operator working as an agent for finding husbands for girls seeking lucrative jobs abroad; and Bipin Nagarkoti, 32, of Kathmandu, the last allegedly assisting the other two. 

Police found that an office was set up at Chundevi, Kathmandu with five bedrooms with sophisticated furnishings, where couples would be kept until they flew to their destinations after securing the marriage documents. The payment charged by the bureaus would include all expenses for the paper work, visa processing, accommodation, allegedly bribing the authorities issuing the marriage certificates, and all travel costs for the girls they marry. 

“The men from China and Korea select the girls from photos sent to them and then come to Nepal for a few days to marry the girls,” DIG Malla said. 

Korean national Park would find the husbands, help train the girls in the basics of the foreign language after the marriage registration, and mediate with agents in China and Korea, said the police adding, he would also shortlist the girls, with priority given to those with Mongolian-type faces.

Police uncovered the racket after one girl was stranded in China a few weeks back but succeeded in returning to Nepal with the help of Chinese police, and government initiatives at this end. 

“We have reports that many more girls are ready to fly to China and Korea without even knowing the proper name, age, background and location of their husbands,” said SP Kiran Bajracharya. “We are now investigating such marriage bureaus and girls now stranded abroad after getting into such marriages to seek jobs,” SP Bajracharya added.

Police said that administrative negligence and recklessness on the part of the grils are among major factors in the rising trend of such marriages. Police have sought support from the general public, the victims themselves and other stakeholders to crackdown on such activities and free the girls now stranded abroad. Police also urged the authorities issuing marriage certificates and visas to keep a close eye on such suspicious marriages.

Published on: 7 March 2015 | Republica