New Delhi: The Kerala government on Monday informed the Supreme Court that 12 Rohingya refugees are residing in Muttil in Wayanad district and so far no instances of Rohingyas being associated with ISI/ISIS is reported in the state.
The state government's affidavit came in response to a petition by BJP member and Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay who sought directions to the Centre and the States to identify illegal immigrants including Rohingyas and deport them.
The State informed the apex court that no case of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, was reported against the Rohingyas in the state in the last five years. "No cross border threat perception existed in Kerala. But the State is having a vast range of coastal areas. Strict instructions have been given to field officers concerned to maintain a close watch on the influx of illegal immigrants through sea route, by effective cooperation of coastal police, Kadalora Jagratha Samithis and the Coast Guard," read the affidavit.
The state government said that a large number of migrants from West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Jharkhand are in Kerala and hence directions have been issued to the concerned officers to verify their identities to prevent the influx of illegal immigrants.
Read: Illegal Rohingya migrants pose threat to national security: Govt tells LS
"At present, 12 Rohingyas from Myanmar and 214 Pak nationals(including 94 "out of views") are residing in the state. Applications for long term visas of 107 Pak nationals are pending with MHA and 1 Pak national is staying on the strength of the orders of Hon. High Court of Kerala. One Pak national is facing trial in the court. In the 94 "Out of View"(OV) Pak Nationals, 87 are men and 7 are women. Out of which, the death documents of 15 Pak nationals (14 men and 1 woman), who reportedly died are yet to be received from civil authorities," informed the state.
"State government is taking concrete steps to detect the overstaying foreigners who used forged travel documents or surreptitiously entered into the country. It is submitted that as per the directions of the Ministry of Home Affairs, this state government has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Home Secretary, to detect foreigners who have been illegally overstaying in India since 1.01.2011. For the last five years, from among the arrested 70 illegal Bangladesh Nationals, 57 were deported and the remaining 13 are undergoing legal proceedings the state," read the affidavit.
