The number of Nepalis claiming to be Maoists fleeing the counter-insurgency drive and seeking political asylum in Belgium has soared from 270 two years ago to more than 500 today. In response, the Belgian government posted investigators in Kathmandu for three months to find out if their asylum requests were valid. The first phase of this investigation is over, and officials say most of the applications for asylum were found to not be genuine. They say the Nepalis were economic refugees. The Belgians' argue that if they really were fleeing persecution by the security forces, they would have gone to India. Instead, they have paid up to Rs 30,000 to buy one-way tickets to Europe. Many of the asylum-seekers are presently being deported back to Nepal at the expense of the Belgian government.

Processing an asylum application takes between six months and a year, and if it is rejected the applicant will be deported within five days. The applicant is not allowed to go to any other Schengen country, and is not allowed to work.

Nepalis seeking political asylum is not a new phenomenon-it goes back to the Panchayat era when Nepalis made applications claiming to be persecuted by the sate. More recently many Nepalis have sought political asylum in Britain, Australia and Belgium, claiming to be Bhutanese or Tibetan refugees. But the numbers have recently gone up dramatically.

In the past year alone there have been 650 applications from Nepalis for political asylum in Britain. Australia has had 95, Netherlands 10. But nearly all these applications are likely to be rejected because the host countries are convinced that the applicants are mostly economic migrants. The most publicised case was the one last year, in which seven Nepalis who had gone on a communist party-sponsored youth event in Algeria "disappeared" during transit at Heathrow. All seven applied for asylum, and the CPN-ML official who allegedly masterminded the entire escapade, Rup Naryan Shrestha, was thrown out of the party.

Most Nepalis get to Belgium on student or tourist visas and stay on illegally, or travel to other destinations in Europe. The students are mostly enrolled at the International Management Institute in Antwerp or Brussels. This school is said to be less stringent about both academic qualifications and English proficiency. There are more than 90 Nepali students currently enrolled there, but sources said 30 others who were issued student visas for the school never attended. The institute has started asking for the Euro 7,500 annual fee in advance after student visas started being misused.

Many asylum seekers carry with them clippings from mocked-up newspapers with names like Himchuli or Kanchenjunga containing news items about them being on the police hit list. Asylum seekers destroy their travel documents on arrival at Brussels or London and say they are seeking asylum. Most European countries have lenient asylum laws, and some even allow the applicants to work while their papers are being processed. Other countries give allowances while the applicants wait, which amount to quite a lot in Nepali rupees. Asylum seekers are said to be able to make up to Rs 70,000 a month, and a further Rs 100,000 by working on the side. Many Nepalis already on the continent are paying traffickers to smuggle them into Britain. Seven Nepalis who had applied for asylum in Belgium were caught on 19 February while trying to sneak into Britain in a truck.

Although many applicants are economic migrants, there are some genuine Maoists in Europe, who have been assisted by solidarity groups such as the Anti-Imperialist Revolutionary Forum.