E-Paper
In Goa, crimes against foreigners show sharp decline, says NCRB data
The fall in cases is in keeping with a larger national trend which has seen crimes against foreigners fall from 517 in 2018 to 191 in 2021 largely on account of fewer people travelling as tourists across the globe due to Covid-19, which was declared a global pandemic in early 2020.
Goa has seen a sharp fall in crimes against foreigners between 2018 and 2020 in line with a larger national trend, but remains a significant contributor to the country’s statistics of crimes against foreigners, data from the Crime in India Report 2020, published by the National Crime Records Bureau has revealed.
Across the calendar year 2020, Goa witnessed 11 crimes against foreigners which is a steep fall from the 34 that was recorded back in 2018 and is also around half the number when compared to the 21 cases that were recorded across 2019.
The fall in cases is in keeping with a larger national trend which has seen crimes against foreigners fall from 517 in 2018 to 191 in 2021 largely on account of fewer people travelling as tourists across the globe due to Covid-19, which was declared a global pandemic in early 2020.
Despite its small size, Goa is among the top five states when it comes to crimes against foreigners after Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka and ahead of several states like Kerala, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh which also witness a lot of foreign arrivals.
The countrywide statistics indicate that theft is the most common form of crime against foreigners followed by rape which comes in at a distant second followed by human trafficking, molestation, assault and attempted murder in that order.
Prior to the pandemic, Goa received around 0.8 million foreign tourists each year according to Goa government estimates mainly from countries like Russia, Ukraine, other CIS countries as well as from mainland Europe.
However, since the pandemic hit--- the Union government cancelled all existing tourist visas and has not granted fresh tourist visas resulting in a complete halt on new arrivals for the past one and a half years.
The state has earlier made headline for several high profile crimes against foreigners, including the murders of British teenager Scarlett Keeling who was raped and left to die on the Anjuna beach in early 2008 and the rape and murder of Irish youngster Danielle McLaughlin in 2017.
