Determined to live in the West, Punjabi youths have taken to furnishing false information to Indian authorities so that the repatriation process against them gets stalled. Many of them are now in overseas jails for illegal immigration.
Mounting pressure from countries such as the UK, Germany, Netherlands, and USA requesting immediate repatriation of illegal migrants led the Centre to call a meeting of the ministries of Home and External Affairs last week. Senior functionaries from Punjab and other states were also present.
Officials from Punjab said youth caught in these countries were deliberately furnishing false information to mislead Indian authorities, making it difficult for the state to ascertain their nationality status verification (NSV).
“Most illegal immigrants give wrong addresses to avoid real nationality verification status due to fear of being deported which makes the job of the filed units difficult to trace these addresses,” said a senior officer from Punjab’s Home department, who represented the state at the meeting.
Gupta said the youths probably conceal their identity to stay put in those countries with the hope that they might get asylum or permanent residency status. But it has made the job of the police difficult as most addresses given do not exist.
{{/usCountry}}Gupta said the youths probably conceal their identity to stay put in those countries with the hope that they might get asylum or permanent residency status. But it has made the job of the police difficult as most addresses given do not exist.
{{/usCountry}}Sources revealed that in 2007, the two ministries had sent 3,665 cases to Punjab’s Home Department from Indian Embassies and Missions in 26 countries to verify the antecedents of detained youths. This year, the department has already received 711 such cases. Last year, Germany had sent 336 cases, of which 250 were found to be fake. From the UK, 824 cases were received, of which 363 were fake.