Nepal is one of the easiest countries to visit due to its liberal visa requirements, on-arrival visas for most countries and lax overstay policies for foreigners. Excluding a few war-torn countries, people from the rest of the world do not have to break their backs (or banks) to come to Nepal.Since Nepal also depends on tourism for income generation and jobs for its youth, this arrangement is a win-win for both the locals as well as the foreigners who come to the Himalayan kingdom for various reasons. The Department of Immigration introduced online visa system from 2004. But the government of Nepal has turned a blind eye to the recent refugee crisis in Europe, and has blatantly allowed foreigners to extend their stay for only US $40 for the next 90 days. The department generally charges 5US$ per day for those who don't extend their visas on time. Aren't such lax policies a threat to the nation itself?
First, not all the tourists who come to Nepal are genuine. We have had several cases where the foreigners have been involved in crimes like drug smuggling, forging currencies and human trafficking. Nepal has become a safe haven for foreign criminals because we do not have capital punishment and our overstay policies are weak. There's no provision of imprisonment for those who overstay. Only their fees get doubled. Such a situation will encourage international mafias and criminal syndicates to use Nepal to expand their networks.
Second, the recent influx of Syrian refugees and others to the European countries should be a lesson for Nepal. We might not face a similar situation as we're still a developing country but we already have seen influx of refugees (think of Bhutanese and Tibetan refugees) who make Nepal as a route to developed countries. The government should scrap the deals (if any) with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to send refugees to the developed nations. Even the so-called first world countries have tightened their policies on refugees. They are facing many problems with the influx of refugees who don't know their language, customs and culture. And hence the idea of multiculturalism is failing in Europe.
Third, the process of giving on-arrival visa to nearly all countries should be reviewed. We definitely need tourism, but not at the cost of compromised national interest. A Canadian man was recently arrested for sexually abusing a Nepali boy. How could our immigration officers overlook his egregious past record? The Department of Immigration should have a strong mechanism to check past records of those entering the country and also to keep tabs of those leaving Nepal. For this Nepal needs to strengthen its visa policies.
Finally, Nepal is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. Thus Nepal is not bound to accept refugees legally. The logic for not signing it, perhaps, is that we are a poor country and cannot afford to support a large number of refugees. There are already 500-plus illegal migrants in Nepal who are hoping to get resettled in developed nations, if they are not repatriated to their home countries. Only if immigration officers had been swifter, they wouldn't have been able to overstay.
That said we may have policies to accept specific refugees like Rohingyas from Burma who are really persecuted at home, or those who are facing death threats for various reasons. Otherwise, we need to tighten our immigration rules. At Nakhu prison of Lalitpur alone there are 66 foreign prisoners. This speaks volumes about our failed immigration policies.
The author is a graduate in International Relations
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