Three youths returned to Nepal recently after spending five months in a Dutch jail and have now been knocking at the doors of the authorities for ´justice´. One of them who identified himself as Prakash Gurung, 29, of Matepani in Pokhara has recounted his story to Republica. [break]
According to Gurung, five Gurung youths including himself, Bir Bahadur, Amir, Resham and Yubaraj, were sneaked into the Netherlands by an Arke airline flight on April 26 without any visas. They had boarded the flight with the help of officials at Tribuvan International Airport (TIA).
All five youths, who claim to have paid Rs 600,000 each to one Agni Paudel, proprietor of Eurasia Manpower Agency in return for a promise to secure them asylum, were detained by Dutch immigration officials upon arrival at Amsterdam Airport on April 27.
“We were detained and interrogated at a jail for illegal immigrants for five months, but we were also provided facilities to file a case demanding asylum,” Gurung said. “Yubaraj and Resham were successful in getting asylum but we failed because of inconsistencies in the documentation and other circumstantial reasons.” He said he met three other Nepalis--Ram Gurung, Nara Bahadur Gurung and Bikash Gurung--in the same jail, but all of them got out and made their way into refuge camps within a few weeks.
Gurung also said he found that their agents kept fabricating necessary documents in Nepal and sent them to the illegal Nepali immigrants in and out of jail while the latter continued to fight their case with the help of counsel provided by the Dutch authorities free of cost.
“People find themselves in sheer despair when they get detained by immigration officials at the airport. They face interrogations and require to fight litigation, although the agents here promised them that they would be taken to refuge camps shortly after proclaiming at the airport that they were refugees,” Gurung continued.
Agents dupe innocent youths into thinking they would easily be sent to refugee centers. “But seeking asylum in foreign countries through faking is not so easy. If people are aware of this, the agents will not be able to cheat them,” Gurung added.
“I think my case failed because fake news items about me printed in a fake newspaper in Nepal had contrasting Nepali and English dates,” he said. “The falsified text produced before the Dutch authorities explained how I was tortured back home by a violent group--I think I should not name it now.´
“Some of those who were from the Terai claimed they were under threat from underground armed groups. That could have been more effective than my claim,” he added.
Eurasia Manpower Agency had allegedly provided the five Gurung youths airline tickets booked in the names of Dutch nationals. “The ticket given to me was booked in the name of one Parschul Bishler,” Gurung said.
”What I have learnt from this incident is that going somewhere for asylum fraudulantly and depending on agents is a gamble. I suggest others not try it," he said.
“Mr. Paudel is not ready to return my money now,” he further said.
Gurung recently lodged a complaint with Metropolitan Police Range Kathmandu (MPRK) demanding action against Paudel for human trafficking. Inspector Krishna Pangeni of the Crime Investigation Section at MPRK said that the case was under investigation.
Paudel, on being approached by Republica for his comment about the allegation against him, only said he was not related to the case at all.
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