Kathmandu, March 13 (IANS) The government of Nepal has decided to stop providing visa-on-arrival facilities to Iranian citizens visiting the country amid the ongoing US–Iran conflict in West Asia, the country's Department of Immigration said on Friday.
“The move is aimed at preventing an influx of Iranian citizens into Nepal due to the ongoing conflict in the region,” Ram Chandra Tiwari, Director General of the department, told IANS. “We have been adopting similar policies for other nations affected by conflicts.”
He said that, based on the recommendation of the department, the Ministry of Home Affairs decided to stop providing visa-on-arrival facilities to Iranian citizens.
“The decision was taken on national security grounds, as there is also a possibility that Iranians could enter the country via India through the porous border,” he said.
Under the new provision, Iranian nationals — except those holding official and diplomatic passports — will now be required to obtain a visa from a Nepali Embassy or diplomatic mission abroad before entering Nepal, the department said. With this decision, the number of countries whose citizens are not eligible for visa-on-arrival in Nepal has reached 13.
The other countries or territories whose citizens are not eligible for visa-on-arrival include Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Cameroon, Somalia, Liberia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, and Syria.
The Nepali government has also maintained that individuals travelling with refugee-status travel documents must obtain a visa from a Nepali diplomatic mission abroad before entering the country.
Nepal has been expressing concern about a potential influx of foreign nationals who could seek refugee status after arriving in the country. In the past, hundreds of Rohingya refugees arrived in Nepal due to the war waged by Myanmar’s military government against them. Nepal also hosted more than 100,000 Bhutanese refugees for two decades since the early 1990s, before most of them were resettled in several Western countries.
When asked whether the decision was also aimed at addressing US security concerns regarding Iranian nationals in Nepal, Tiwari said this was not a factor behind the decision.
“We have not received any diplomatic communication from the US about any threat posed by Iranian nationals in Nepal,” Tiwari said.
The department said the latest measure regarding Iranian nationals is part of Nepal’s immigration regulations governing entry procedures for certain nationalities.
--IANS
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