By Rabi Raj Thapa

Law enforcement refers to the agencies and personnel responsible for upholding the law, maintaining public order and ensuring public safety. Criminal justice system law enforcement refers to a legally authorized agency’s response to prevent, detect and investigate crimes, make arrests, and prosecute offenders to maintain public safety. In this regard, CIAA is also a constitutional body with competent professional police officers working in its investigation jobs. The sudden transfer of DIG Nepal Police Himalaya Kumar Shrestha investigating Home Ministry’s Joint Secretary Tirtha  Raj Bhattarai on a Visit Visa scandal that linked up to the Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak was a surprise to many. More surprising was the withdrawal of the transfer letter and reversal order of the same decision within twenty-four hours, which created a shock wave on the intention of the ministry as a whole.

This transfer indicated that Tirtha Bhattarai is definitely not the Kingpin of the whole racket. There must be many more above and below, within and outside the government ranging from civil service to political, business to social sectors.

The most absurd and amazing thing is that the same home minister and home secretary who should show more concern are hiding their tail and calling press conferences to outcry his innocence. Most surprising is the eagerness of the sitting prime minister and former prime minister to vehemently shield and proclaim home minister Ramesh Lekhak like a holy cow.  

Once, when the Immigration Department was a branch of the Nepal Police, it used to be headed by a Deputy Superintendent of Police with around 150 personnel only. Since it was taken over by the Home Ministry directly, immigration personnel swelled into thousands, and positions in the immigration office began to attract all, began to be covetous just to make money and enrich themselves. Its personnel priority changed from crime control, and monitoring foreigners’ activities to revenue collection. The whole department began to focus on money and power which resulted into a slack and corrupt department. Now the problem is, it is not only the money, corrupt and slack immigration attracts terrorists and criminals for hide-outs and safe-heave.

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime quotes, “Nepal’s state’s response to human trafficking has largely been seen as ineffective. There is still significant ambiguity in the way Nepal’s legal system deals with trafficking in persons. All concerned stakeholders look weak and apathetic to enact effective measures to curtail the impunity of agents and institute accountability, the authorities continue to fail to bring counter-trafficking laws in line with international standards <https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/amend-law-in-accordance-with-palermo-protocol>. It writes, “The main criminal actors involved in human trafficking are criminal networks and private sector actors operating with little or no oversight in the country.” Then the question arises “Why do Nepal’s oversight bodies and its political overlords close their eyes and even intervene and blindly defend indictment and protect perpetrators from investigation?

The government need to pay attention to the World Bank, National Human Rights Commission, UNODC (2019) Reports that concludes, “There is undefined and illegally ambiguous relationship between the authorities and actors involved in criminal market that suggest that corruption is indeed an issue when it comes to human trafficking in Nepal; especially when considering that bribes and kickbacks are often paid to airport officials and border checkpoint officers to accept forged documents.

Most interesting is the Home Secretary, hiding and keeping mum in all these reverberating national scams. Maybe, he is also totally unaware and innocent as much as the Home Minister.

Now, political masters need to focus and discuss how to decriminalize the Department of Immigration and dismantle its deep-rooted institutionalized crime syndicate from within the Immigration Department and even the Ministry of Home Affairs.