Three Nepali migrant workers, who were rescued from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border three months ago, will return home on Wednesday evening.

According to the Nepali Embassy in Islamabad, they were illegally taken to Kabul via New Delhi by human traffickers one year ago. Binod Danuwar of Morang, Suk Bahadur Sonar of Dhading and Ganga Bahadur Gurung of Jhapa had reached Kabul. When they did not get the promised jobs there and wandered in their effort to return, they were stranded at the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Though the traffickers had promised them lucrative jobs in the Afghan capital, they did not get the jobs they were told about in Nepal. Nepal’s embassy in Islamabad had rescued them from Pakistan and provided them with food and shelter for three months. The embassy had not been able to arrange for money to send them home immediately.

Asian Training Centre, a business firm in Kathmandu, helped them buy the air tickets. “Both of us paid around Rs600,000 to the agent,” said Binod and Ganga, adding that they had faced hardships to cross the Afghan-Pak border.

“There were three other Nepalis like us. Each of them paid $5,000 to the agents to return home,” said Ganga. One of the agents promised to take us to Torkham, a major border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan, after we paid 12,000 Pakistani rupees, he said.

Suka Bahadur crossed over to Pakistan by paying money to the local agents. “The border security caught me as I had no immigration documents. I was kept in an unknown place for 40 days before I was sent to the Nepali embassy,” he said.

Nepali Ambassador to Islamabad Bharatraj Paudel said they faced risks while rescuing the Nepalis. “They had entered Pakistan illegally, which threatened their lives,” said Paudel.