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Indian agencies blamed for plight of Iraq-bound Nepalese
A large number of recruitment agencies and touts in India have been hiring people from Nepal and sending them to dangerous destinations under false promises.
Unscrupulous Indian recruitment agencies and touts are being blamed for the plight of Nepalese workers in Iraq.
Though both the Indian and Nepalese governments have banned the recruitment of their nationals to violence-torn Iraq, manpower agencies and brokers from both countries are still said to be illegally sending blue-collar workers to that country, sneaking them in through Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Kuwait.
A large number of recruitment agencies and touts in India have been hiring people from Nepal and sending them to dangerous destinations under false promises, say workers who have recently managed to return home.
Twenty-three-year-old Prateek Gautam, who comes from Rupandehi district in southwest Nepal, is among 30 people sent illegally to Nepal, the state-owned Rising Nepal daily reported.
Gautam, along with 10 more Nepalese, 13 Indians and six Bangladeshis had been sent to Iraq where they were captured by an unnamed Islamic militant group and subjected to physical and mental torture, the daily reported.
Though their captors released them, the group, according to Gautam, was arrested when it fled to Lebanon illegally. Though Gautam was able to obtain his release after 75 days in captivity, he had no idea what happened to the Indians and the Bangladeshis, the daily had reported.
The news of Gautam's ordeal was picked up subsequently by Nepalese TV channels and other local dailies.
Gautam was quoted as saying that he and the other 10 Nepalese were sent to Iraq by a New Delhi-based agency.
"They had gone to Iraq through Mandip Tours and Travels, situated on Gurdwara Path in New Delhi after paying Nepali Rs.400,000 per head," the Himalayan Times daily reported Sunday.
"A Nepalese, Bodhi Prasad Pun, had taken them to that manpower agency," the daily added.
Gautam was quoted as saying that "innumerable Nepalese" were in India to go to Iraq and that the "antecedents" of the recruiting agents should be checked thoroughly before people decide to go abroad.
The plight of Nepalese workers in Iraq was highlighted last week when 12 nationals were killed after being taken hostage by an Islamic militant group.
