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Enforcement Directorate officials said on Friday they are probing a 'complex network' of agents and facilitators in India, Canada and the US who help Indians illegally enter the US via 'bogus' admissions in Canadian colleges.
A day after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told Parliament that the focus should be on a 'strong crackdown on the illegal migration industry', central probe agencies and state police forces on Friday announced a slew of measures that they plan to take against such travel agents.
According to the data that the government provided in Parliament last year, the Centre and states had notified 3,094 'illegal agents' on the eMigrate Portal until October 2024.
Jaishankar told Parliament on Thursday that on the 'basis of information provided by returning deportees about the agents and others involved, law enforcement agencies will take necessary preventive and exemplary actions'.
Punjab Police Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav on Friday said it has set up a four-member Special Investigation Team to probe the issue of illegal migration and human trafficking.
In a post on X, the DGP said the fact-finding committee/SIT has been directed to take appropriate action according to law and facts and take action against any person found involved in committing illegalities and indulging in illegal migration/human trafficking.
In Haryana, two days after 104 deportees from the US landed in Amritsar, including 33 from Haryana, two people, including a deportee, police complaints were registered against travel agents who had allegedly sent them to the US.
According to the ministry of external affairs, as part of India-US cooperation on migration and mobility, both sides are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration including human smuggling and create more avenues for legal migration from India to the US.
To ease the emigration process and facilitate the employment of Indian workers abroad, the MEA has signed several Memorandum of Understanding, Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreements (MMPAs) and Labour Manpower Agreements (LMAs) with the governments of various countries.
However, India does not have any such specific agreements with the US.
According to the MEA, it has signed MMPAs with the UK, France, Germany, Austria, Australia, Italy and Denmark. It has inked Labour Welfare Agreements with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Jordan.
India has labour mobility agreements with Denmark, Japan, Portugal, Mauritius, Israel, Taiwan and Malaysia.
Enforcement Directorate officials said on Friday they are probing a 'complex network' of agents and facilitators in India, Canada and the US who help Indians illegally enter the US via 'bogus' admissions in Canadian colleges.
Officials said more than 8,500 monetary transactions are under the scanner of the federal probe agency in a case booked under the anti-money laundering law and taking cognisance of a Gujarat police crime branch FIR of 2023.
Some international financial companies that aid remittances of funds abroad are also under the investigation scanner of the ED after it conducted 35 searches over the past year and seized assets worth Rs 9.2 million, they added.
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
