Kathmandu, Feb 16: Hundreds of Nepali workers in Portugal have landed in serious legal trouble after authorities found forged authentication stamps on their police clearance certificates.
Officials said Nepal Police had issued the police reports legitimately, but fake seals and signatures of the Portuguese Embassy and the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi were later added. Once the irregularities surfaced, Portugal’s Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum, AIMA, stopped processing their Temporary Residence Card applications. Many now face possible deportation.
During TRC reviews, AIMA concluded the documents involved misuse of immigration procedures. The agency has emailed hundreds of Nepalis, ordering them to leave Portugal within a set deadline. Some notices warned of penalties that could include up to one year in prison and deportation, according to those affected.
After receiving the warnings, the workers approached the Nepali Embassy in Lisbon. The embassy reported that fake authentication marks of the Portuguese Embassy in New Delhi were detected on about 1,250 otherwise genuine police reports.
Ambassador Prakash Mani Paudel said complaints continue to rise. The embassy has received written petitions from 850 individuals and emails from about 400 others. Their names have been forwarded to AIMA for facilitation, and the total number could climb to around 2,000.
Portugal had introduced a fast track to clear pending TRC cases while tightening checks on new filings. Applicants who secured tax and social security numbers by June 3, 2024, could apply if they submitted a police clearance.
Victims blame a nearly ten-month gap in consular services, during which middlemen allegedly charged 150 to 200 euros to insert forged stamps online. Many say they were misled and have urged Nepal’s government to help them reapply, insisting the police reports were real but the authentication was faked.
People’s News Monitoring Service
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