E-Paper
Police begin search of 325 missing foreign nationals in the city
The Special Branch of Pune Police is searching for 325 foreign nationals who have gone missing after their student and business visas expired. The foreigners, who come to Pune for education and trade purposes, have overstayed in violation of immigration rules. Efforts are being made to locate them, with teams sent to verify their addresses and coordinate with authorities in other cities. The majority of the missing foreigners arrived in Pune for education, with the rest coming for tourism, medical, and business purposes.
PUNE: The Special Branch (SB), of the internal intelligence gathering wing of Pune Police has initiated a search on war footing to trace 325 foreign nationals who have gone missing since the expiry of their student and business visa, officials said on Saturday.
The Mumbai Foreigners Registration Office (FRO) last week sent a list of 325 such foreigners who had gone missing in the city after which the SB has begun a massive search operation.
Most of the foreigners arrive in the city on student and business visas for education and trade purposes. Some of them overstay which is in violation of FRO rules of stay in the country amounting to illegal stay. Taking into account the potential dangers, the SB has readied a list of 325 such offenders whose whereabouts could not be traced.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (SB) A Raja said, “We have found that 325 such foreigners are missing post expiry of their visas and a search has been ordered. It could be that they might have left the country but all efforts have been undertaken to trace them. Our teams are physically verifying the addresses furnished by them on their arrival in the city. We have found that they were not present at the address presented to the police.”
Since 2016, some foreign nationals have been found to have overstayed. They are from Yemen, Uzbekistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uganda and Nigeria. Ninety per cent of these foreign nationals have come to the city for pursuing education either in colleges or universities in Pune while the remaining had come for tourism, medical and business visas, said officials.
“According to the rules, on expiry of visa, it is mandatory for the foreign nationals to immediately leave the countryy. We have procured information from the Immigration Bureau and have even shared the information with our counterparts in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Delhi. Teams have been sent to the places where they had reported and also teams are being sent to the educational institutions where they took admissions,” Raja added.
Modus operandi
Once the foreign nationals realise that their visa has expired and it will not be extended , then move to another residential address and extend their stay illegally. Most of the time, they are traced to be staying with the nationals of their own countries. They don’t even complete their studies which is a ploy to keep extending their stay in the country, said officials.
