Karnataka forms panel to trace, deport overstaying foreigners

The state government constituted a five-member committee on Friday 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, auxiliary services). The Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO), police superintendent (state intelligence), police superintendents of the concerned districts and a representative of NIC (state coordinator for Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration & Tracking) are members.

The order states that the committee will trace out the missing foreign nationals, conduct a monthly review of overstaying foreigners, sensitize all district SPs to utilize 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 7th of every month by the said committee,” the order states.

The order was issued a day after the Central Crime Branch (CCB) on Thursday 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.