70 days for ‘illegal’ Indians in UK to verify their nationality

LONDON: India will commit itself to a 70-day deadline to verify and confirm the identity of individuals alleged by Britain to be illegal migrants, according to a memorandum of understanding to be signed by PM Narendra Modi during his visit here in April.

The text of the MoU was finalised and initialled by minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju and UK minister for immigration Caroline Nokes in London last week. The sensitive issue is linked to Britain improving its visa offer for Indian nationals, expected to be announced during Modi’s visit. The issue of repatriating illegal Indians is one of key elements in the bilateral relationship.

The returns have so far been plagued by delays in confirming Indian nationality of suspects, though the 70-day deadline is expected to speed up the process.

No figures for suspected illegal Indians are released but the Home Office assesses that Indian citizens are among the top nationalities remaining in the UK Illegally.

As Prime Minister Theresa May said during her November 2016 visit to India: “(The) UK will consider further improvements to our visa offer if at the same time we can step up the speed and volume of returns of Indians with no right to remain in the UK.”

The MoU divides Indian citizens without a legal basis to be in the UK into two categories — those whose passports and other details are available from their applications for British visas, and those whose documents are not available but acknowledge being Indians.

The verification process of the first group — after Britain submits documents to India — is to be completed within 15 days, while the identity of individuals in the second group — a more complicated process — will need to be confirmed within 70 days.