A JOINT team of officials from the Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) and the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) raided two manpower agencies on Tuesday and recovered 246 passports of foreign employment aspirants, which the agencies were illegally holding for a long time. Following a tip-off on the activities of Kankai Money Transfer in Balaju and Golden Horse Travels in Minbhawan, , the team raided the offices and recovered 173 passports from the former and 73 from the later. Father and son duo Durga Prasad Niraula and Som Nath Niraula, the operators of Kankai Money Transfer, were arrested from their offices. Raju Pandey, the operator of Golden Horse Travels, is however at large. In a shocking revelation, both the agencies were operating illegally and have not obtained licences for foreign employment business from the DoFE. The number of complaints at the DoFE from victims of the two agencies had been piling. The victims said their passports were being held for months while the companies failed to return them even after their failure to send them abroad for employment. DoFE Director Lal Babu Kawari said there are complaints against other companies as well and that the department will initiate action against all such manpower agencies.

Published on: 10 August 2011 | The Kathmandu Post