BHAIRAHAWA, March 26: Twenty-nine Nepali nationals including four students have been stranded at the Belahiya-Sunauli border crossing between Nepal and India while entering Nepal from India on Wednesday morning amid the coronavirus pandemic.

As the government imposed a week-long shutdown from Tuesday 6 am bringing all services except essential ones into a standstill, the Nepali nationals who had reached various Nepal-India border points from India have been stranded.

The stranded returnees who are mostly Nepali migrant workers are taking shelter on the India side of no man's land.  They were working in different jobs in Bangalore, Gujarat, Banaras, Locknow and Kanpur.

The Nepali border administration has not allowed them to enter Nepal owing to the spread of COVID-19, according to Sete Ranabhat from Chitwan. "People from Belahiya village have provided us food and shelter since yesterday," Ranabhat said who is accompanied by his family members.

Security agencies on the Nepali side of border said that they have not got any instruction from the higher authority regarding giving permit to the Nepali nationals stranded along the Belahiya border point.

Ishwari Adhikari, police inspector at the Belahiya Area Police Office, said that they have already notified to the local administration regarding the issue. "We have yet to get instruction from the district administration and local level," he said.

 
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