Kanchanpur, June 26 -- Man Bahadur BK, 13, left his home in Kailali, hoping to ease his family's hardship. With both parents ill and no source of income, he mortgaged his land to borrow Rs40,000 after a neighbour promised him a job in India's Rudrapur, for which 23,000 Indian rupees was required upfront.

But when he reached Rudrapur in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, the reality was starkly different. He was held in a hostel briefly, then moved to a house where his phone was seized, and the promised job never came.

"They said it was easy work and good pay. But I ended up in something like a jail," he said through tears at the Gaddachauki border as he returned to Nepal on Wednesday.

BK was among 57 Nepalis from 18 districts re...