579 passports of Indian nationals seized till date in contravention of Yemen travel ban: Centre

Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh in a written response to a query also said that out of these, '269 passports have been released'.

New Delhi: There have been cases of seizure of passports of the Indian nationals, who have travelled to Yemen over the past few years in contravention of the travel ban to that country, and 579 passports have been seized and received till date in passport offices across India, the Central government informed Parliament on Friday.

Minister of State for External Affairs spokesperson Kirti Vardhan Singh in a written response to a query also said that out of these, "269 passports have been released".

He was asked whether the government has taken note that the emigration department has seized passports of many individuals for travelling to the countries like Yemen, Iran, Iraq, etc. and if so, the details thereof along with the number of passports seized and released, country-wise and state-wise and criteria fixed for releasing the held up passports.

"There have been cases of seizure of passports of Indian nationals who have travelled to Yemen over the past few years in contravention of the travel ban to Yemen imposed by the Government of India vide Gazette Notification No. S.O. 3223(E) dated 26th September, 2017 (ref. Annexure-I)," Singh said in his response.

The travel ban to Yemen was promulgated in view of the "fragile political and security situation" in that country. The notification continues to remain in force, he added.

"Under the provisions of the above said notification, till date 579 passports have been seized and received in passport offices across India for travelling to Yemen despite the travel ban. Out of these, 269 passports have been released. However, seizure/release of passports is a continuous process," the Union minister said.

Singh said that in order to mitigate the sufferings of people who had travelled to Yemen due to job compulsions or due to ignorance of the travel ban, the government has issued "guidelines to all Passport Issuing Authorities to process the release of passports on case to case basis".

A final decision on release of such seized passports is taken by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and conveyed to Passport Issuing Authorities.

"Any Indian citizen, whose passport has been seized for travel to Yemen despite the travel ban, can approach the concerned Passport Issuing Authority with a request for release of the passport. Government continues to take a compassionate view of individuals who have travelled to Yemen despite the travel ban," he added.