Migration and Mobility Partnership
Source :The Hindu
GS II : Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests

Why in News ?

MoU with U.K specified time limit for verificatoin before Illegal Indian Migrants From UK who are sent back to India. 

• The MoU named as ‘Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement’.

Background

Recently India and UK signed MoU on returning illegal migrants and Children. They will be grant emergency travel documents to return along with parents.

• The MoU, which has been in the works for the past three years
• It has been revised after India declined a proposal by the U.K. to use DNA sampling to establish the nationality of document-less illegal immigrants who the U.K suspects to be Indians.

Key Facts

• Children born to Indians staying illegally in the United Kingdom will be granted emergency travel documents to  return along with parents.
• It will be based on birth certificate issued by the British authorities based on a Memorandum of  Understanding (MoU) signed between the two countries on May 4.
• Why they return ?
  • British citizenship is not acquired by birth alone.
  • There are a combination of factors, including the year of birth and parents circumstances.
• Conditions for Returning
  • Before illegal immigrants identified by the U.K authorities are allowed to return government officials here will conduct a probe to establish if the person is indeed an Indian citizen or not.
  • The State police will be conduct the probe once a request is received by the Centre.
  • The U.K. will share its expertise to train specialists in the fight against document fraud and to provide its  expertise in the field of detection equipment.
  • If voluntary return is refused by the migrant, forced repatriation on a case-by-case basis will be resorted to by UK.
• How many Illegal Migrants are staying in UK ?
  • Earlier estimate by the U.K government there are around 1,00,000 Indians who entered illegally or are overstaying their visa in the U.K..
  • According to India the numbers is not more than  2,000.
• Time frame to verify the nationality
  • A person who holds an Indian passport and who has overstayed the visa will be not later than 30 days on the receipt of request from the U.K authorities.
• Time frame and Condition for Document less Person
  • A person has acknowledged that he is an Indian but does not have a passport or a Visa Overstayer  document the time limit to establish the nationality will be 90 days.
  • But here the U.K authorities  will have to provide either a national identity card, a driving licence or a birth certificate among others to the Indian authorities to authenticate her/his Indian nationality.
• U.K will also have to follow the same procedures if a British national is found staying illegally in India.
• MoU will continue for seven years until terminated by either participant giving three months’ prior written notice.
  • It will be revived automatically after seven years.

Benefits for India

• The pact will provide enhanced employment opportunities for 3,000 young Indian professionals annually
  • Tens of thousands of Indians study in the UK each year.
  • India has complained about a lack of employment opportunities available to them when they finish their studies.

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