Punjab to seek help for illegal immigrants in Spain

Chandigarh, March 12 : Moved by the plight of several Punjabi youth languishing in prisons in Spain after illegal immigration bids, the Punjab government Friday announced it would seek the central government's help in securing the release of these people.

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal assured the state assembly that he and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal would meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek his intervention for release of 37 Punjabis who had illegally migrated to Spain in recent years.

These illegal immigrants are languishing in the jails of Spain.

Intervening in the issue of illegal Punjabi migrants raised by Congress legislator Sukhpal Singh Khaira during zero hour, Sukhbir Badal said the problem of Punjabis going to other countries using illegal routes was a serious one.

He said he would request the prime minister to intervene so that all Indian embassies are issued instructions to identify jailed illegal migrants in their respective countries and provide protection and, if required, extend legal help to them.

Badal narrated his personal experience when he was studying in California, the US, and was working in a hotel when he received a distress call from a Punjabi illegal migrant there.

Khaira had raised the problem of illegal migrants as highlighted by a report of a UN agency released Thursday by the Punjab chief secretary.

Punjab has a thriving migration industry but thousands of youth from the state want to go abroad through the illegal immigration route through unscrupulous immigration and travel agents. Many of them end up in other countries in the Gulf, Pakistan, north-African countries and even Malaysia and are abandoned by the agents.

The report stated that over 20,000 people from Punjab take the illegal immigration route annually, mostly paying lakhs of rupees to the illegal agents by selling land and other property to go and settle abroad.