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Fewer overstayers than Advani figures

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI FEB. 18. Last month the Government announced its decision to seek and evict Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who had over-stayed their visas or had illegally entered India, as they were considered a threat to India's security. Making the announcement, the Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, put the figure of Pakistani overstayers at 11,500 and of Bangladeshi illegal immigrants at half a crore.

The Government's figures, tabled in Parliament today, however, are rather lower. While the Government still fails to name a figure for the number of Bangladeshi illegal immigrants, its data, from 2001, for those who have over-stayed their visas provides a far less alarming picture than was presented last month. Of the 55,171 people who remain in India after the expiry of their visas, the largest number is from Bangladesh and they total 24,443. Afghan nationals (not named as a security threat by the Deputy Prime Minister) follow with 10,158 and Pakistanis only claim third place with 6,748 over-staying. Nationals of the UK (1,388), U.S. (1,102) Canada (894) and Malaysia (879) are the next line of major visa defaulters. The majority of overstayers, 24,222 are in West Bengal, followed by 19,304 in Delhi and 4,231 in Rajasthan and 3,628 in Tamil Nadu. In response to a question about the number of over-stayers who are untraceable the Home Ministry has said that only Pakistani nationals are reported to be untraced and their number is reported to be 2,321 as on 31 October 2002.

For a Government concerned with this issue, the number of illegal foreigners deported is not very high.

The Government also does not clarify whether those it has deported were illegal immigrants or visa over-stayers. Bangladeshis, again top the list of the deported

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