Manish Gautam

A Bangladeshi national has been arrested for using counterfeit Nepali passports to send his compatriots to Gulf countries for employment, police said on Tuesday.

A team from the Central Investigation Bureau arrested Mohammad Delawar Hossain from Tribhuvan International Airport on June 27. Police probe found that Hossain had been buying Nepali handwritten passports for up to Rs 300,000 apiece, replacing the photos, and sending Bangladeshi nationals to labour destinations such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Dubai. Hossain had sent at least 25 Bangladeshis to these countries on forged Nepali passports.

Police say Nepali passport racketeers first seek out demand for Nepali labourers from foreign companies and then passports are collected from foreign job aspirants. The documents are then validated for various jobs from the Department of Foreign Employment.

The owner of the recruiting agency then takes work visas for Saudi Arabia for stamping to Bangladesh, in the absence of the Gulf country’s embassy in Nepal, where the company’s local agent makes a deal with Bangladeshi nationals. The agent sells the passports to Bangladeshis for a hefty price. Back in Nepal, the company either files a police report for lost passports or pays around Rs 20,000 to passport bearers while a majority of them do not report the “loss” of misused passports.

During interrogation, Hossain told police that agents of Al Zarifa Manpower and RP International Consultancy had sold the passport to him. The CIB has filed cases against Kumar Puri of Al Zarifa Manpower and Purna Bahadur Magar of RP International Consultancy, in May. Devi Prasad Kafle of NCF Employment Services, who is believed to be the mastermind behind the scam, had presented himself before the court.

Upon their investigation, police found that Magar had sold the passports to Hossain. According to Superintendent of Police Suresh Bikram Shah, the CIB was able to return 11 forged passports while they are corresponding through diplomatic channels for bringing back the other misused passports.

Published on: 16 July 2014 | The Kathmandu Post