Home min put 4.2k foreigners on visa blacklist since 2015
nNEWDELHI: On Thursday, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement that it has blacklisted 960 foreigners “present in India on tourist visas” for their “involvement in activities of the Tablighi Jamaat.”
As many as 4,200 foreigners have thus far been blacklisted by the Home Ministry’s Immigration Department for flouting tourist visa norms and engaging in Tablighi activities, particularly missionary work, since 2015, according to government officials familiar with the matter.
The focus on the activities of the Tablighi Jamaat has increased after a gathering in March organised by it has been found to be responsible for hundreds of Covid-19 infections across India.
It is likely the first of its members to be infected may have come in touch with infected foreigners staying at the organisation’s headquarters in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area.
While Maulana Saad, the fourth emir of Jamaat, has made it clear, from his quarantine-base that Tablighi workers must follow medical advice, the initial resistance or hesitation by the group in following government guidelines regarding large gatherings, social distancing, and the nationwide lockdown has been blamed for a spike in positive cases all over India.
The home ministry has directed Delhi Police and the police of other states to act against these foreigners under the Foreigners Act and the Disaster Management Act.
The government on Thursday said among 9,000 Tablighi Jamaat members, who are under quarantine across the country, 1,306 are foreigners.
About 216 foreigners were still in the six-storey building in central Delhi when Indian officials began their evacuation a few days back.
Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba has told state police chiefs to run a quick background check on them to ascertain their activities.
According to North Block officials, Tablighi followers from abroad are put on an immigration blacklist if they are found preaching or proselytizing in India. It is not a violation to merely listen to sermons from the Jamaat leadership, one of the officials cited in the first instance clarified.
Foreign members of the Jamaat engaged in missionary work on a tourist visa are blacklisted for two years. Since January 2020, at least 2,000 foreigners particularly from Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Myanmar have visited the Markaz at Nizamuddin, the organisations HQ.
Hindustan Times learns that in cases where a Tablighi preacher with a large following is misusing visa norms, then the home ministry blacklists the person permanently. HT couldn’t ascertain how many preachers have been permanently blacklisted since 2015.
A foreigner on the blacklist will not be given a visa again for two years. Now the home ministry is debating if it should extend the validity of the blacklist to at least four years or more to send a strong message.
“Under the existing provisions, such kind of visa violations do not attract permanent blacklisting. But we intend to revisit the issue,” said a second official.
A Delhi police officer, who did not wish to be named, said legal action against Jamaat members, who violated their visa conditions, will entail registration of cases against them and arrest.
The Tablighi Jamaat, an offshoot of the Deobandi movement, preaches on how to be a good Muslim by focusing on Quran and Hadiths while also incorporating some local traditions. In that way, it is different from Ahlehadith and Wahabbi movements of Islam.