KATHMANDU, March 7: In what could be the most embarrassing situation for an incumbent minister, authorities in Abu Dhabi Airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) barred Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Lokendra Bista from flying on to Germany after he was found traveling without a visa, Monday night.
Airlines authorities barred Bista from taking a connecting flight as the red passport he was carrying did not have a visa to travel to Germany. Bista was scheduled to attend a Travel and Tourism Fair to begin from Wednesday. [break]
Bista had left Kathmandu via Etihad Airways to Abu Dhabi Tuesday afternoon along with his wife Ganga and other delegates to attend the fair organized by ITB, Berlin. Bista learnt that he did not have a visa stamped on his passport only after the airline officials at Abu Dhabi told him.
According to diplomatic sources, Minister Bista was asked to sit in the airlines office for about four hours until the officials were convinced after interrogations and inquiry from different channels that he was an incumbent government minister from Nepal.
Talking to Republica over the telephone, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Arjun Bahadur Thapa said, “Our embassy in Abu Dhabi is trying to sort out the problem.”
Officials at the Nepali embassy in Abu Dhabi learnt about the incident from officials at the Nepali embassy in Germany, who were waiting to welcome the minister at Frankfurt airport. Timely intervention of Nepali embassy officials, who reached the airport Tuesday morning, avoided his possible ´deportation´ to Kathmandu, diplomatic sources confirmed.Minister Bista leads a delegation of some 20 members. Other members of the delegation, however, did not face any problem as they had already obtained visas from the German embassy in Kathmandu.
Bista´s wife Ganga, who chose to stay back in Abu Dhabi airport after the incident, is flying with Bista for Germany Wednesday. They are scheduled to return home on March 11.
Etihad Airways seeks clarifications
Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi has sought clarifications with its office in Kathmandu as to how Minister Bista managed to fly from Kathmandu without a visa. The airline sought clarifications as to where the office erred, making it possible for the minister to fly without a visa. Airlines do not issue boarding passes without ensuring that the passengers have the visas for travel.
Result of bypassing the system
The problem Bista faced seems not only just due to negligence by his personal secretariat members and ministry officials, but largely due to the tendency of VIPs to bypass the existing system.
The MoFA had sent a visa note along with the minister´s red passport to the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, based on the cabinet decision.
Neither ministry officials nor members of the minister´s personal secretariat seem to have taken the trouble to apply for a visa at the German embassy in the first place. “We did not even check the documents thinking that a visa had already been issued,” admitted a member of the minister´s personal secretariat.
Secondly, airlines do not issue boarding passes without checking the visas and tickets of the passengers.
But it appears that the minister´s aides had obtained the boarding pass from airline officials while the minister was in the VIP lounge, without showing them his passport . This could have been possible largely due to the fact that Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) is under the ministry Bista holds.
Thirdly, a passenger obtaining a boarding pass also needs to pass through the immigration section that stamps a departure sticker on the passport.
Each passenger then goes through rigorous security checking and scrutiny of visa and other related documents before heading for the waiting lounge. But Bista seems to have skipped the process.
Searching for the minister
As Minister Bista was supposed to land at Frankfurt International Airport at 6 am local time Tuesday from Abu Dhabi, the Nepali embassy in Berlin had sent the Honorary Nepali Consul in Frankfurt Bodo Kruger to welcome him at the airport, according to Nepal´s envoy to Germany Suresh Pradhan.
But since the minister was not found travelling by Etihad Airlines, the Consul communicated this to Pradhan. The envoy then inquired about the minister´s whereabouts with the Nepali Embassy in Abu Dhabi at about 10:30 am local time.
The official at the Nepali officials in Abu Dhabi rushed to the airport -- a one hour drive from the embassy. As the official reached the airport, they found that that minister and his wife Ganga were preparing to board a Nepal-bound plane. The duo had even caused a delay to the flight because their luggage was already in another aircraft bound for Frankfurt.
Shortly after embassy officials communicated to MoFA in Kathmandu about the problem, some MoFA officials had gone to German Embassy in Kathmandu to request necessary arrangements to give the minister a German visa through its Abu Dhabi embassy, to avoid humiliating the minister. But as the visa hours at the German Embassy there is 8 am to 12 noon, Minister Bista is likely to obtain his visa for Germany possibly Wednesday evening, sources said.
The embassy officials had obtained UAE transit visas for both the minister and his wife later in the afternoon. They are currently staying in the Nepali Embassy in Abu Dhabi.
Related story
Jojo Rabbit director felt shame dressing as Hitler for movie
