By Our Reporter

The European Union (EU) has included Nepal on its updated list of high-risk third-country jurisdictions for money laundering and terrorist financing, aligning with the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) latest “grey list” issued earlier this year.

The announcement, made by the European Commission on June 11, adds Nepal to the list of nine other countries—Algeria, Angola, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Laos, Lebanon, Monaco, Namibia, and Venezuela—that will now face enhanced due diligence measures by EU-based financial institutions. While placing Nepal in its updated list, the EU removed eight countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Barbados, Gibraltar, Jamaica, Panama, the Philippines, Senegal, and Uganda, citing improvements in their financial regulatory frameworks.

The EU has also banned Nepali airlines from operating in its airspace for years.

Transactions of unlawful money, mostly earned by corrupt leaders and civil servants as well as the misuse of a high amount of money from local cooperatives seem to have pushed Nepal into the 'grey list'. Many, including the president of the Rastriya Swatantra Party and former Home Minister Rabi Lamichhane, are in jail for embezzling the cooperatives' money while several others are on the run.

Meanwhile, the United States has placed Nepal on a monitoring group, listing it as a country with widespread trafficking.

The US Department of State in its latest Trafficking in Persons (TIP) 2024 report has put Nepal on the 'Tier 2 Watch List' citing an increase in the risk of human trafficking compared to the cases of 2023, when Nepal was only in Tier 2 List.

These two reports were made public when the opposition parties were disrupting the House of Representatives over the visit visa scam accusing Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak of his direct involvement in the scam.

However, the decisions are based on the report of 2024, hence the revelation of the Bhutanese refugee scam seemed to have made the EU and the USA place Nepal in the 'Grey' and Tier 2 Watch List. This has further tarnished the image of Nepal in the West, thanks to the corrupt leaders.

Former Home Minister Bal Krishna Khan and other powerful politicians were connected to the Bhutanese refugee scam, in which Nepali nationals were sent to the USA by providing them with fake identities of Bhutanese refugees. Now, sitting Home Minister Lekhak is dragged into the visit visa scam as some persons in his secretariat were directly involved in sending Nepali workers to different countries on visit visas by taking a hefty amount of bribe.

Although Khand was released on bail, many others including Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, former deputy prime minister and UML secretary, are still in judicial custody.

These two cases clearly showed that Nepali politicians are either directly involved in corruption or are giving protection to corrupt individuals.