• Cheated by agents, women face punishment upon return on forgery charges

 

The agent took care of everything including her passport which was given to her at the last moment in Mumbai, India, from where she flew to Riyadh.

 

Though things didn’t turn out as she was promised, Thapa received a “satisfactory” treatment from her employer during her three years in the Gulf Kingdom.

 

But she found herself in a fix when she landed at the Tribhuvan International Airport some two weeks ago.

The TIA immigration arrested her on the charge of using a forged passport.

 

‘’My agent gave me the passport for Rs 10,000. Was it his fault or mine? How would I know he used my photo on someone else’s passport?’’ asked the seemingly illiterate Thapa who was released on Thursday after the Nepali Immigration detained her for seven days. She was also fined Rs 5,000.

 

Biru Sewa Limbu of Jhapa was released on the same day. She was also caught for passport forgery while arriving from Saudi Arabia. Limbu’s alleged crime was the same as Thapa’s but she was detained for 22 days and fined Rs 3,000.They recounted terrible experiences in the prison cells where around 30 women were kept in a single room adjacent to the men’s cell.

 

The detainees were crammed into a congested room. Thapa said she had to sleep on the ground with around 25 other women . There was an acute problem of sanitation.

 

‘’Why is the government treating us like criminals while returning to our own country? Why doesn’t it stop them before departure or punish the agent who plays with the lives of women ?’’ Thapa questioned.

 

It is a question that hundreds of women ask themselves while they get arrested for crimes they had never committed. They are doubly betrayed, first by their agent and then by the government. TheDepartment of Immigration (DoI) arrests around 10 persons every day, mostly women , on the charge of passport forgery popularly known as PC.

 

While most of them are released by means of bribe, a few others, according to a DoI source, are referred to the court where they may face up to five years in jail and a fine of Rs 50,000 if proven guilty.

 

DoI records show a total of 485 cases of passport forgery , mainly involving women , were forwarded for the court. On an average every month, 70 cases were reported this year.

 

DoI officials say around 90 percent of the people involved inpassport forgery are victims of foreign employment fraud. ‘’The law allows the release of such victims without punishment on humanitarian ground. But, some DoI staffers have made it a source of their earning,’’ said the official.

 

Migrant workers easily comply with the demands when the officials threaten to lock them up for several years.

 

However, DoI spokesperson Kamal Bhattarai said the office refers all the cases to the court. “The workers can file complaints in the Department of Foreign Employment or the DoI if in cases of fraud,” said Bhattarai, denying any kind of foul play at the department.

 

The detention facility and its inhumane treatment of female migrant workers came under severe criticism after the case of Sita Rai came to light in November last year. Rai was first robbed by DoI officials and then raped by a police official at the DoI.

 

Following the rape and robbery case of Rai, a high-level committee was formed to investigate the cases of violence against women . The report has asked the government not to further victimise femalemigrant workers who are already victims of manpower agencies and agents by detaining them.

 

In a report submitted to Interim Election Government Chairman Khil Raj Regmi, the eight-member committee led by PMO Secretary Raju Man Singh Malla had recommended that the government punish the agent.

 

A large number of women are illegally taken to the Gulf in promise of jobs through illegal routes primarily via India and Bangladesh. Many of them are given a forged passport. A report prepared by the Nepali embassy in Saudi Arabia last year showed that around 70,000 Nepali women were illegally working in the Islamic kingdom. Government statistics show only a few hundred womenhave got permission to work in Saudi Arabia.

 

Various factors including the rise in organised human trafficking, unfriendly laws which include age bar on women below 30 to work in the domestic sector in the Gulf, comparatively cheaper service charges, lack of education and awareness, bureaucratic hassles and weak monitoring of the stakeholders have forced the women to follow illegally routes while seeking overseas jobs.

 

The VAW report had pointed out the government’s decision to banwomen below 30 to work as domestic helps in the Gulf increased the risk of trafficking and smuggling of women .