According to CIB, Sukun, a daughter of Kul Bahadur Rai from Jyamirgadi- 2 of Jhapa, was below the age of 14 when racketeers sent her to Kuwait via New Delhi of India on March 27, 2010 by forging her 27-year-old sister Indra Kumari Rai’s passport. 

 

DIG Upendra Kant Aryal, CIB chief, informed that the racketeers had replaced Indra Kumari’s photo with that of Sukun’s in the passport to show the underage girl as eligible to travel abroad for employment. “No person under the age of 21 is allowed to travel to Gulf countries for employment, but it appears that Sukun was sent there showing her as a 24-year-old woman when she was under 14,” he informed. 

 

CIB followed Sukun, acting on information served by the Embassy of Nepal in Kuwait that she had been sent back home yesterday. Police have also recovered the forged passport from her possession. She has been sent to Metropolitan Police Range, Hanumandhoka for further investigation. 

 

Earlier, CIB had arrested Kishan Kumar BK (26) of Malatola- 4, Bajhang at Tribhuvan International Airport after he was deported from Kuwait on Wednesday. He was in possession of a genuine passport (no. 4133690) of Khadka Bahadur Gurung from Kalokot- 6 of Syangja. 

 

According to officials, he used to operate together with two other racketeers by the name of Kamal and Nisha from New Delhi where they had set up Akash Overseas, a manpower agency. 

The racketeers charged up to Rs 100,000 to send each Nepali to Kuwait, Qatar, Baharin, Saudi Arabia and UAE illegally. CIB officials said they were trying to dismantle the root of forgery rackets operating from India, which send many Nepalis abroad with the promise of lucrative jobs there. 

 

According to Nepal Institute of Development Studies, an NGO that researches migration patterns, around 60 to 70 undocumented Nepali women are being sent to Gulf countries through the backdoor. The latest NIDS statistics shows that more than 144,000 Nepali women are estimated to be working there. Most of them have reportedly been sent illegally by human traffickers operating from India.