AMMAN, Aug 23 (AFP) - Twelve Nepalese believed kidnapped in Iraq had come to Jordan seeking jobs but were lured by offers of higher salaries across the border in Iraq, an employment agency here said on Monday.
"They were hired for Jordan," assistant manager Haytham Mohammad of the Morning Star agency said, and arrived in Amman around three months ago.
But, like "everyone who comes to Jordan", they heard of jobs in Iraq "where there are a lot of offers of high salaries" and decided to try their luck there, he added.
According to Mohammad the men contacted a local placement agency in Jordan which recruits workers for Iraq and left by car Thursday for the embattled neighbouring country.
"They had been interviewed for jobs here and were waiting (for replies), but they changed their minds," he said, adding that workers in Iraq can earn three times as much as they would in Jordan.
"They were caught on the road near Ramadi", west of Baghdad, he said, without giving further details.
Mohammad said Morning Star, which has offices in Nepal and in other parts of the world, had not heard from their kidnappers.
"I hope we would receive a message then we can help them," he said. "We are still waiting."
On Sunday an Islamist militant group, Army of Ansar al-Sunna, published on its website pictures of 12 men identified as Nepalese citizens whom it said it had abducted for cooperating with US forces in Iraq.
The Nepalese government appealed Monday for their release and said it was still trying to confirm their abduction.
Meanwhile, the names of the 12 alleged hostages were published by Nepalese newspapers, which contacted employment agencies in Kathmandu and Jordan.
Their families said the men had traveled to Iraq in hopes of escaping poverty in the Himalayan kingdom, which has been in the grip of a Maoist insurgency seeking to overthrow the monarchy since 1996.
Nepal, one of the world's poorest countries, declined US requests to send troops to Iraq, saying its army had its hands full with the Maoists.