KATHMANDU, Jan 29: Following the revelation that a substantial number of machine readable passports (MRPs) were being forged or tampered with in the destination countries, the Department of Immigration (DoI) has started trying to trace the original holders those passports.
Stating that many Nepali MRPs are being used illegally by returnee migrant workers from Malaysia and Saudi Arabia, DoI said it will coordinate with Nepal's embassies in those countries to find out if the passport holders had sold their documents with the help of agents.Director General at DoI, Kedar Neupane, said, "The use of forged MRPs as travel documents by returnee migrant workers has alarmed us and we have started investigations with the help of all authorities concerned.
Neupane informed that MoFA will be coordinating with the embassy in Malaysia for issuing travel documents to any migrant workers who don't have the necessary papers. "If embassies in the destination countries issue the travel documents to illegal migrant workers and to those without the necessary documents, there should be no need to doctor anybody else's passport," he added.
He further said that they have formed a working committee comprising officials from the Department of Passport, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and the Nepal Police to probe the cases. DoI has already had two rounds of meetings with the authorities concerned.
DoI has recorded up to 20 such cases of forged passports. Preliminary investigations at DoI show that the passports were doctored and then sold at a high price to migrant workers whose passports have been withheld by their employers. Returnee migrants have paid up to Rs. 80,000 for the dodgy travel documents.
SSP Sarmendra Khanal of Crime Investigation Division at Nepal Police said that they have already started investigations into the cases. "This is a serious crime and we are working to find out if the racket is duping many innocent people," he said.
Khanal added that they will seek the help of police in the destination countries to find the agents providing such forged passports to migrant workers.
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