Eleven Nepali workers, who were stranded in Afghanistan for almost one year, arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday. 

 

The stranded Nepali workers were rescued by the Nepali embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, with assistance from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). They left Kabul early in the morning and landed in Kathmandu on a Fly Dubai flight (FZ-575) via Dubai in the night. 

 

“It´s a victory for all involved in the rescue mission,” said Bharat Raj Paudyal, Nepal´s ambassador to Pakistan. “Besides IOM and ICRC, the home ministry and the Office of the Attorney General of Afghanistan also helped us in rescuing our people.” 

 

The rescued workers include Lil Bahadur Kafle, Janak Dhakal, Binesh Tamang, Shiva Kumar Rai, Dhan Bahadur Gurung, Subash Chandra Rai, Rajendra Mishra, Ramnanda Rai, Jitendra Gurung, Sasan Thapa and Shiva Kumar Rai.

 

The Nepali embassy in Islamabad had started the rescue mission two weeks ago after the family of Lil Bahadur Kafle, who hails from Ilam district, submitted an application at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) seeking the government´s help in safely bringing back the stranded workers.

 

“Our embassy in Islamabad was already aware of the case [of the stranded workers],” said Dilip Paudyal, chief of Consular Section at MoFA, adding, “The embassy expedited the mission after we forwarded the Kafle family´s application.”

 

The stranded Nepali workers had entered into Afghanistan after paying Rs 400,000-Rs 450,000 to different manpower agents. The manpower agents had promised to provide the Nepali workers with jobs as security guards in Afghanistan. However, once in Afghanistan, the agents went out of contact, leaving the workers in the lurch. 

 

As they had reached Afghanistan on visit visa relying on the manpower agents who had promised them that they would later help convert their visit visa into work visa, the Nepali workers had to hide from the Afghan police. With no legal status, job and money, they had been living in a house -- whose owner would provide food on credit -- in Bagram, 40 km northeast of Kabul, for the last two months.

 

The officials say Gopal Karki, a Nepali worker in Kabul, is a key member of the trafficking nexus. Karki had lured the stranded workers to Afghanistan by assuring that he would help them find lucrative security guard jobs. Milan Thapa, in Delhi, and Sumitra Rai, in Kathmandu, among others, had worked as agents for Karki. They are now out of contact.

 

“We are trying to locate Karki in Kabul,” says Nepali ambassador Paudyal. “We have so far not been able to intensify our search because our priority was to rescue the stranded workers rather than trace and punish the agents.”