Nepal has exempted eleven countries, including Nigeria, from its new tourist visa regime which will soon be introduced.

It was disclosed on Saturday that the new visa regime is a strategy to reduce the number of foreign offenders that use Nepal as a transit route to illegally migrate into a third country, and also to stop the country from harbouring refugees.

The eleven countries exempted from the arrival visa are Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Cameroon, Somalia, Liberia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan.

Suresh Adhikari, the director general of the Department of Immigration (DoI), said: “We had started granting a 90-day visa on arrival to promote tourism, but the provision now needs to be reviewed and we are in talks with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to amend it.”

Adhikari said that people visiting Nepal for trekking, expedition or mountaineering purposes will continue to get an arrival visa for 90 days, but those who just visit will get arrival visa for 30 days.

Under the latest scheme, US, Chinese and European Union citizens will be given precedence, as they have annually sent thousands of tourist to Nepal consistently.

– BusinessDay