Jalandhar, May 1
Endless quest for bright future and greener pastures in the West, coupled with monstrous lust of travel agents for easy money, has landed 116 Punjabi youths — most of them belonging to the Doaba region — in custody of the Turkish police authorities, which have started the process for repatriation of these youths.
Almost all 116 persons arrested by the Turkish police authorities belong to Punjab and are without valid travel documents like passports. The dream destination of the youths was same — Greece to Germany or the USA — used by victims of the Malta boat tragedy and those perished in the recent boat capsize near Greece.
Passports to 101 arrested Punjabis, according to sources, were issued by the Jalandhar Passport Office, while rest of the youths got their passports made from the Regional Passport Office, Chandigarh, though it was a different matter that almost none of the arrested youths was carrying his passport at the time of arrest by the Turkish police, alerted by activities of illegal human traffickers, after the recent boat mishap, in which 35-55 Punjabis were feared dead. The passport authorities, it is learnt, are trying to play down the issue, since the issuance of as many as 101 passports to the arrested persons from the Jalandhar office is likely to snowball in a major controversy.
The Istanbul Consulate, which has already initiated repatriation proceedings, has shot off queries about the identity of the arrested Punjabis to the Passport Offices in Jalandhar and Chandigarh and has sent a list of such persons through fax. The Passport Office, Jalandhar, authorities, it is learnt, have already verified the antecedents of about 62 persons, while verification of the rest of 39 persons is still pending. After receiving queries from the Istanbul Consulate, the Jalandhar passport authorities, sent telegrams at the addresses, revealed to the Turkish police by the arrested Punjabis.
Even as all attempts to contact Passport Officer Amarjit Singh went futile with his staff repeatedly maintaining that he was not available, passport authorities, it was learnt, were trying to gather more information about passport holders arrested by the Turkish police. The families of the arrested persons were being asked to deposit one-way fare so as facilitate the early repatriation of their wards and family members.
Meanwhile, the last week’s boat tragedy and the arrest of 116 Punjabis has raised dust about the alleged nexus between passport office officials, some unscrupulous travel agents and their “sub-agents”, commonly seen bargaining with innocent passport seekers even within the Passport Office premises with promises that they would get their passports made in no time if they were ready to pay hefty “fee” for it. So much so, some persons were armed with more than one passport.
