Addressing a meeting of the parliamentary State Affairs Committee (SAC) on Tuesday, the officials said such an unpleasant situation occurred as immigration and security officials did not bother to check whether the red passport the minister possessed had a visa stamped in it, thinking naively that a person at the level of minister must have already seen to it. [break]
Amid criticisms from various quarters that the incident of Minister Magar flying to Germany without a visa only to be barred at Abu Dhabi International Airport had caused national embarrassment, SAC had invited Home Secretary Sushil SJB Rana, Director General at Department of Immigration (DoI) Sudhir Shah and TIA security chief DIG Narayan Bastakoti to learn what loopholes led to such an unpleasant situation.
DIG Bastakoti informed the SAC meeting that Magar had reached TIA VIP lounge at 4:37 pm and boarded the Etihad Airways aircraft seven minutes later. The minister´s personal aides and TIA General Manager Ratish Chandra Lal Suman had obtained boarding passes and departure stickers for the minister and his spouse Ganga shortly after the minister´s arrival at the VIP lounge.
As he was flanked from the VIP lounge onwards by the TIA civil aviation director general and other senior officials, he was able to board the aircraft at16:49 and fly to Abu Dhabi without having to undergo any security and immigration checking. “We did not bother to check as it was beyond our imagination that the honorable minister would travel abroad without a visa,” said DIG Bastakoti.
Speaking at the meeting, DoI Director General Shah admitted there was human error on the part of immigration officials on duty. “As department chief I take moral responsibility for the incident,” he said.
Shah said the TIA general manager himself had reached the immigration counter with the passport of Minister Magar and his spouse to obtain the departure stickers. “The immigration officer on duty is found to have checked the passport of the minister´s spouse, but not the one belonging to the minister out of the belief that he must have obtained the visa already. The mistake occurred as the official seems to have checked only the bio page in the passport,” he said.
Shah said, “We have sought clarifications from the official concerned”.
Taking part in the deliberations, lawmakers criticized the functioning of TIA security and immigration officials, arguing that this particular incident had raised a serious question concerning overall security at TIA. They also demanded further discussions and necessary recommendations to check loopholes in TIA security and immigration arrangements to avoid similar incidents in future, once the government probe committee submitted its report.
Various lawmakers including Jagadish Narasingh KC of Nepali Congress and Raj Bahadur Budha of CPN-UML had demanded Magar´s resignation on moral grounds for causing Nepal such embarrassment internationally. The SAC meeting has also drawn the attention of Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai over the incident as Magar himself has not owned up to any responsibility.
Magar was stranded for several hours on March 5 after authorities at Abu Dhabi Airport in the United Arab Emirates barred him from flying on to Germany after he was found traveling without a visa. A four-member probe committee is currently investigating the incident.Lawmakers had suggested immigration authorities review the special treatment given to VIPs at the airport.
Bista apologizes for visa gaffe
RUKUM: Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Lokendra Bista Magar has apologized over the visa debacle saying the incident had brought embarrassment to the country.
Addressing a function at Musikot on Tuesday, Bista said, “The lack of visa in my passport was not planned but a mistake caused due to negligence,” he said.
“The truth behind the debacle will come out soon as a committee has already been formed to probe into the matter. If the visa debacle has brought shame to the country I would like to apologize,” he added.
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