Dozens of Nepali students have fallen prey to a racket of transnational human traffickers who smuggled them into St Lucia, a small island nation in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with “made-up” enrolment at Lambirds Academy, based in Gros Islet.

The incident came to light after a crackdown by the Saint Lucian police earlier this week that rescued aspirant students from Nepal and the Philippines along with several traffickers. The Academy turned out to be fake and the racketeers had faked certificates and academic programmes.

Authorities there have charged several people including three Indians and a Bangladeshi, the prime accused, in connection with the offence of human trafficking. At least 13 victims returned to Nepal earlier this week, according to one victim who claims many others may be stranded in the country. The students returned home on the tenth day of their departure for the Island.

The Post has learnt that the victims went there through firms including Perception Education Consultancy, Significant Educational Consultancy, Excellent Education Consultancy Services and Euro Immigra-tion based in Kathmandu . They had charged up to Rs1.2 million from each candidate. “We paid the money after we were convinced of the entire processing. Everything looked real,” a victim told the Post seeking anonymity.

The victims, who were expected to get enrolled in a hospitality management course, were confined in a local guest house. Victims of the fraud including Pushkar Ghimire, Kiran Thapaliya, Sunil Lama, Anup Kumar Chaudhary and Sargeet Thapa had confirmed on social sites about their departure for Lambirds Academy for “February intake”. Face-book posts of others including Dhiren Magar, Pemanorbu Lama, Chandra Gurung and Prakash Subedi also show they applied for the course. Two had dependent visas.

Though the total number of victims could not be independently confirmed, one of them claimed that some 40 Nepali students may have been swindled by the racket.

Bishwo Bhandu Gautam of the Perception Education Consultancy agreed that he had sent the students. “They are still in St Lucia and doing well and we are in contact,” said Gautam, who claimed to have sent two students.

Prashant Karki of Euro Immigration based in Putalisadak said his firm had sent Anup Kumar Chaudhary. “It’s true that we sent Anup. He is still in St Lucia. We had well researched about the college before sending the student there,” said Karki.

According to St Lucia News Online (SNO), police have so far unveiled the names of Iftekhar Ahmed Shams, Koushal Kumar Batukbhai Chadasama, Ashwin Kanji Patel and Gurjeet Singh Vilkhu in connection with the accident. The SNO claims that many others including the wife of an ex-minister of the country may have been involved in the case.

Jeevan Sharma of Nepal, who represents the Kathmandu -based Blackgrain Solution Pvt Ltd, told the news site that the school administration had sent him all the documents including a “visa saying student of Lambirds in the visa waiver letter”.

Sharma told the news portal that he paid tuition fee directly to the institute’s bank account in Castries, not any agent.

Nepal Police said they are unaware of the incident as no complaint has been filed. “We will conduct an investigation if any of the victims files a complaint,” said DIG Hemanta Pal.

Published on: 8 March 2015 | Kathmandu Post