A five-member committee has been formed to crack down on overstaying foreigners.
The committee has been constituted following a request by the Ministry of Home Affairs to all states “for tracing the missing foreigners who are found overstaying in India since 01.01.2011”, according to a government order.
The committee will be headed by the principal secretary (prisons, crimes and auxiliary services). The Foreigners’ Regional Registration Officer (FRRO), the superintendent of police (state intelligence), the superintendents of police of the respective districts and a representative of the NIC (state coordinator for Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration & Tracking) will be its members.
The order states that the committee will trace the missing foreign nationals, conduct a monthly review of overstaying foreigners, sensitise all district SPs to utilise the e-FRRO facility to locate/trace and report the illegally overstaying foreigners.
“A monthly report indicating the status of tracing the missing foreigners is to be sent to the Government of India, Home Ministry, by (the) 7th of every month by the said committee,” the order states.
The order was issued a day after the Central Crime Branch (CCB) rounded up 38 foreigners said to be staying illegally or peddling drugs in Bengaluru. Fourteen of them were eventually let off. The “illegal” expats, mostly from African countries, were detected during a search of 65 houses in East and North Bengaluru, and they failed to produce valid documents. In some houses, the CCB found banned drugs such as ecstasy pills and ganja.