KATHMANDU: In a first of its kind incident, 15 Nepali migrant workers were held by Costan Rican authorities yesterday. The incident has raised the issue of lack of monitoring by the government as some manpower agencies are involved in illegally sending Nepali migrant labourers to various destinations.

Some 54 US-bound migrants from Nepal and Africa were taken into custody after their boat arrived on the Central American country’s coast, reported the newspaper Al Dia. Authorities were treating some of the migrants for dehydration after several days at sea and took into custody three suspected Colombian smugglers who were travelling with them.

Initially, officials said all 54 migrants were from Africa. But after interviewing them, they reported 15 were from Nepal and 39 from Africa. One migrant asked a Costa Rican policeman upon arrival, “How close is this country to the United States?”

The security ministry of Costa Rica released a statement quoting one migrant as saying he left Nepal for India, where he stayed a month, before heading to South Africa. From there he caught the boat promising to take him to the United States.

Costa Rican migration director Mario Zamora said that the seven women and 47 men would be taken to a detention centre in San Jose