It came as a shock for a group of Bhutanese travellers when their trip to Nepal was cut short right after it started. Seven people were denied entry at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal earlier today. They had to return home. They said they were refused visas since they were carrying travel documents instead of passports.
Just after leaving the airport in Paro, the travellers were back from their trip to Nepal. Their brief trip lasted only a few hours. Some of them had gone for official purposes while some were on business trips and a few were on vacation.
Unlike in the past when travellers could get visa-on-arrival at the airport, seven of them were denied this service since they were carrying travel documents.
And to make matters worse, they said those who had not purchased their return tickets had to pay for their flight back. One of the passengers said he incurred around Nu 24,000 for the round trip.
A passenger who wanted to remain anonymous said although she had a passport, she had to come back since her mother who was also on the trip was carrying a travel document.
“I was taking her for a holiday. Unlike in the past, we were not given the visa-on-arrival and then we were deported back. Now I don’t know how to go about, whom should we blame?” Nobody told us anything,” she said.
Another passenger said officials flatly refused their pleas.
“The officials at the airport said our travel document is not accepted and that they cannot allow us to enter their country. They said this is according to their law,” he said.
“They refused to even look at the document. So we had to fly back. Our case may be minor but I am worried about those who are travelling to far-off places,” he further added.
The foreign ministry has been issuing travel documents as replacements for passports after the passport office ran out of passport booklets more than a week ago.
While ordinary passports are blue in colour with a validity of 10 years, travel documents are green with five-year validity.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Minister said some countries such as Nepal, require a prior visa when travelling with travel documents, meaning people need to process their visa in advance before travelling to the destination country. He said travellers need to cross-check the visa procedures in the destination countries before flying out.
It is unclear whether the ministry notified the public of this information in advance.
Kelzang Choden/Namgay Wangchuk
Edited by Yeshi Gyaltshen
