Malta deaths: Govt considers change in immigration law

George Iype and Syed Firdaus Ashraf in New Delhi

Death by drowning of more than 200 illegal immigrants from Punjab on the high seas off the coast of Malta has forced the Indian government to consider drastic changes in the 14-year old Immigration Act.

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday registered a case of cheating and forgery against the fake travel agents whom the federal government holds responsible for transporting poor peasants from Punjab, promising them well-paid jobs abroad.

A team of CBI officials led by Deputy Inspector Generals of Police Sharad Kumar and M N Sharma will investigate the murky dealings of travel agents in Delhi and Punjab which ended up in a watery grave for the Greece-bound Indian immigrants.

According to the ministry of external affairs, nearly 400 Indians left New Delhi in September 1996 for Damascus, Istanbul and Larnca. Upon their arrival in these cities, they were to be shipped to Greece from where the passengers were promised entry into European destinations like Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.

The immigrants mainly hailing from the towns of Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Jalandar and Kapurthala, had been assured by the travel agents that prosperous jobs were easy to get in Europe as countries like Germany and Italy generally declare an amnesty for foreigners who settled in the countries after a specified period of time.

The travel routes of the immigrants, who included Asians from countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were meticulously planned by some Delhi and Greece-based agents.

MEA officials said the ill-fated Indian aspirants to the foreign countries had taken off from Delhi on Gulf Air, Royal Jordan Airlines and Kuwait Airways. While the ticketing in Delhi was done by one Dhamma, a travel agent in Connaught Place, and Mandeep Travels in Karol Bagh.

"The travel agents have gone underground. We are questioning their staff and searching their offices to unearth details of the Greece-bound passengers," a CBI official told Rediff On The NeT.

The travel agents had stated in the visas of the passengers that all of them were going to Greece to join a ship as 'seamen.' The real reason was to send the Indians and other Asian immigrants to various European destinations.

However, what awaited a batch of more than 300 Asian immigrants, including some 200 Indians, was death in the icy waters off the coast of Malta. Reports said an apparent bid to transfer the illegal immigrants from the liner Yiohan to an 18-foot boat in the middle of the ocean led to most of the 300 passengers drowning in the Mediterranean Sea.

Arif Khan, joint secretary at the MEA, told Rediff On The NeT that the government has sought the help of Cyprus, Greece and Italy to recover the bodies of the Indian immigrants.

While the three-week-old tragedy slowly unwinds, the home ministry is planning a major initiative to check illegal travel agents across the country.

As per Indian laws, all recruitments of Indian nationals should be within the purview of the Immigration Act, 1983.

"All those travel agencies that are not registered with the labour ministry are illegal and liable to be prosecuted," R K Saini, the Protector General of Immigration, told Rediff On The NeT.

The Act stipulates that all those Indians who wish to migrate overseas for work should produce their visas, passport and proof of their foreign employers to the PGI for clearance.

"But fake travel agents have mushroomed across the country who transport illegal Indian immigrants to foreign countries on forged documents," Saini added.

Home ministry sources said the government is awaiting a detailed report from the CBI to initiate a major crackdown on fake travel agents across the country.

"The government cannot keep mum when poor Indians die in foreign seas because of the unscrupulous travel agents in the country,'' a top official told Rediff On The NeT, adding that a crackdown on the travel agencies is imminent.