Nepalese people evacuated from Afghanistan arrive via Kuwait at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2021. (Photo: AP)

KATHMANDU, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- As many as 118 Nepalis arrived in the capital Kathmandu from Afghanistan via Kuwait on Tuesday, Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

"Arrival of Nepali nationals from Afghanistan has started," the ministry stated in a social media post. "As many as 118 of them have arrived at Kathmandu airport by a chartered aircraft via Kuwait this morning."

Sewa Lamal, spokesperson of the Nepali Foreign Ministry, said that the Nepali government had made a request to various foreign governments having presence in Afghanistan for help in bringing out Nepalis.

"We are expecting the arrival of more Nepalis today in the country," she told Xinhua.

As many as 164 Nepalis and two Afghan nationals had been back in Nepal between Aug. 5 and 15, according to Nepal's Department of Immigration.

It is unclear how many Nepalis are in Afghanistan, and the Nepali government once barred Nepali citizens from working in Afghanistan in July 2016 after 13 Nepalis working in the Canadian Embassy in Kabul as security guards were killed in an attack.

The ban was lifted four months later as a large number of Nepalis went to Afghanistan through informal channels for relatively high pay.