New Delhi, September 16
Here is an opportunity for nearly 100,000 Indian illegal immigrants in Italy, most of them Sikhs, to get a right to stay in the European nation. Thanks to the intervention by Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur, they could do so by easily procuring duplicate Indian passports. Italy recently announced an amnesty scheme to regularise illegal immigrants in the country, which would be beneficial for the large number of Indians as well.
Official said many of these illegal immigrants travelled to Italy on fake passports or overstayed in the country. Some of them were duped by passport agents. Most of them were labourers or engaged in petty jobs or worked as domestic help. Under the month-long amnesty scheme launched on September 1, these illegal immigrants could apply for regularisation of their status for which they need their Indian passports.
However, very few of them are in possession of their passports.For getting duplicate passports, they need to register FIRs. But these illegal immigrants fear that they might be arrested once they seek to lodge an FIR. “So the main stumbling block was the registration of an FIR,” the officials pointed out.
Preneet Kaur took up the matter at the highest level in the Home Ministry. As a special case, it has now been decided to issue duplicate passports to these illegal immigrant Indians without an FIR but after verification of their nationality and other antecedents.
The result is that the Indian Embassy in Rome and the consulate in Milan are flooded with Indian illegal immigrants interested in getting the right to stay in Italy. The Indian mission in Italy recently told the External Affairs Ministry that it did not have sufficient staff to manage the documents of thousands of Indians seeking verification from the mission. Nearly a dozen officials have now been dispatched from Indian missions in neighbouring countries to assist the applicants.
The Indian mission in Rome is also organising camps in local gurudwaras to educate the people about the benefits of the amnesty scheme, such as respectable jobs for them with more salaries. Small teams have, meanwhile, been constituted at regional passport offices (RPOs) in Chandigarh, Jalandhar and Amritsar to verify and confirm the passport particulars to the Indian mission in Italy on an immediate basis.
