J&K admin forms committee to identify foreigners illegally staying in UT

Jammu, Oct 18 (PTI) The Jammu and Kashmir administration has set up a six-member committee to identify foreign nationals who are illegally staying in the Union Territory since January 2011.

The home department in an order stated that the committee will prepare a monthly report and submit it by the seventh day of every month to the Union home ministry.

The financial commissioner-cum-additional chief secretary of the home department will be the chairperson of the panel which was constituted in response to a November 26, 2020, communication by the home ministry, the order read.

The members of the committee include the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) of Punjab, senior superintendents of police (SSPs), the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Special Branch) of both Jammu and Srinagar, and all SSPs and SPs (Foreigners Registration Office).

In 2021, the Jammu and Kashmir Police had launched a major crackdown against illegal immigrants and detained over 270 Rohingyas from Myanmar, including 74 women and 70 children, at the sub-jail in Kathua district’s Hiranagar.

The jail was eventually turned into a holding centre for foreigners staying illegally in the Union Territory.

Rohingyas are a Bengali-dialect speaking Muslim minority in Myanmar. Following persecution in their country, many of them entered India illegally through Bangladesh and took shelter in Jammu and other parts of the country.

More than 13,700 foreigners, including Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshi nationals, are settled in Jammu and Samba districts of Jammu and Kashmir, where their population has increased by more than 6,000 between 2008 and 2016, according to government data.