Kathmandu, June 29:

The Department of Immigration (DI) arrested 54 foreigners for overstaying in Nepal and deported them to their home countries this fiscal.

According to Dilli Pokharel, section officer at the litigation section of the DI, the department arrested seven Britons, five French nationals, five Nigerians, five Chinese, four Americans, three Koreans, three Somalians, two each from Ireland, Russia, Philippines, Netherlands, Canada, Turkey, and one each from Oman, Kazakhstan, Iran, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arab, Germany, Guatemala, Israel, and Japan and deported them to their home country.

Record at the DI, however, showed that the number of foreigners arrested for overstaying has decreased. Last year, the department arrested and deported 211 people from various countries. “Most of them got arrested from the Tribhuvan International Airport. Police arrested a few foreigners from other parts of the country also,” Pokharel told this daily.

He said that they take under control foreigners overstaying in Nepal and interrogate them.

“After interrogation, we also hand over some foreigners to the embassy concerned for the purpose of deportation,” he said, adding that for other cases, the department itself took initiatives to send them to their respective countries. “If the foreigners overstaying in Nepal are found to have been involved in any kind of activities, we do not deport but “expel” them,” he asserted.

According to Pokharel, 303 Nepalis have also been deported from various countries this year for overstaying.

“A large number of Nepalis is being deported from the UK, Japan and Germany,” he said.