BENGALURU: While we honour the 1950 Treaty of Friendship with Nepal, encouraging illegal migration of people crossing the border without valid documents makes the country vulnerable. Times have changed since 1950; so have history and security issues.
While discussions and debates are on about illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and the Rohingyas, what’s going unnoticed is the steady influx of illegal migrants from Nepal. Illegal since almost all these migrants cross the border into India without a valid Nepalese identity card.
Blue collared workers from Nepal have become a sought after labour force in India; it’s a perceived sense that they are cheap labour.
Nepal and India share an “open” border as per the bilateral Treaty of Peace and Friendship signed between the two nations in 1950. According to the Treaty, Nepalis and Indians can travel and work across the border, and are to be treated at par with the native citizens. They don’t need a visa to travel between the two countries, nor are there any immigration procedures.
In the absence of such registration, the Nepali migrants’ population in India is undocumented. Neither the Home ministry, Police or even the Embassy of Nepal have a record of the number of migrants who live here. According to reports of the 2001 census, roughly 50,000 Nepalis were said to be living in Delhi. A 1998 GEFONT (General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions) report estimated that around 2.8 million Nepali migrants were in India. Forget the data, the increasing numbers are there for us to see.
Though a citizen of Nepal entering India by land or air does not require a visa, the Foreigners Registration office mandates that they should possess any of the following identity documents; Nepalese passport, Nepalese citizenship certificate, Voter Id issued by the Election Commission of Nepal or limited validity photo-identity certificate issued by the Nepal mission. Ask your Nepali maid or watchman for an identity card and they will show the Indian Aadhaar card. Barring a few, none of them carry any Nepali identity card.
Once in India, in no time they acquire an Aadhaar card, which becomes a gateway for them to acquire a ration card, BPL card, PAN card and voter id too.
UIADI too specifies that a native of Nepal seeking an Aadhaar card must produce a valid passport. In the absence of a passport they must produce a valid Nepalese Citizenship Certificate and a limited validity photo identity certificate issued by Nepalese mission in India for stay of more than 182 days. You can be sure none of the migrants have these documents.
I wrote to the Deputy Chief of Mission at the embassy of Nepal in Delhi, seeking information on the number of Nepali migrants in India. They did not respond to my mails. It was obvious that they don’t have the data.
The Home Ministry too seems unsure of the rules. To an RTI query “what documents are the Nepali migrants required to carry during their stay in India”?, the reply states “ a citizen of Nepal entering India by Land or Air over the Nepal border does not require a Passport or visa for entry into India. However, a citizen of Nepal while traveling by air between Nepal and India is required to be in possession of identity documents to establish his/her identity as a Nepalese citizen”. While there is no need for visa or immigration for Nepal citizens, the Ministry advised me to approach the immigration department and directed my RTI to the visa section. Is there a disconnect between the Foreigners Registration Office, UIADI and the Home Ministry?
India and Nepal share an 1,800-km long open border along five Indian states; Bihar, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Every day nearly 10 to 15 busloads of Nepal migrants come to India from the UP border alone, according to the migrants. Undoubtedly they are here to settle permanently. “We are a nation with very poor resources, we have a cash crunch. From the taxpayer’s money we are feeding illegal migrants (Bangladeshis, Rohingyas, Nepalese) something akin to the entire population of Australia”, says Dr Vikram Singh, Former DGP, Uttar Pradesh.
How they enter India: Numerous migrants I spoke to revealed that an agent brings them in large groups. When they cross the border they are not asked for any documents, only the agent shows his Aadhaar card at the check post. Their belongings too are not checked thoroughly and bribe works effectively at the border they inform. Once in India, there are agents and community members who help them acquire Aadhaar cards, obviously with no valid Nepal documents. The migrants travel by road changing several buses; it takes four days to reach Bangalore from the UP border.
While we honour the 1950 Treaty of Friendship with Nepal, encouraging illegal migration of people crossing the border without valid documents makes the country vulnerable. Times have changed since 1950; so have history and security issues. “It is critical that a biometric identity system has to be activated at the borders where migrants enter the country. Look at the insurgency problem we are facing in Kashmir, for decades we are unable to sanitize the region”, cautions M.D. Nalapat, Editorial Director of The Sunday Guardian.
The border areas adjoining India and Nepal are notorious for illegal trade, human trafficking, and other criminal activities. Given the porous nature of the border, criminals and terrorists use it as easy routes to cross the border unhindered.
“Thriving business of small firearms, weapons, and counterfeit currency racket poses a big challenge for India. I am from a place called Deoria, on India-Nepal border in UP. We never had a problem with Nepal until the time we had the Maoist insurgency in India. There was talk in the police that Nepalese Maoists are training Indian Maoists and Naxalites. In 2002, there were Nepalese Maoists receiving treatment at the Lucknow medical college as a result of gunshot injuries from the Nepalese royal army”, reveals Dr Singh.
Nepal aligning closely with China poses concerns about their loyalty to the Treaty of Friendship with India. Gorkhas have been inducted into the Indian Army from pre-Independence times. “Now, it poses a security risk. China is also inducting Gorkhas in their army. What if among two brothers, one is working for the Red army and the other in the Indian Army? Dimensions have changed”, cautions Dr Singh.
The case of Mirza Baig, a Nepali parliamentarian reported to be an ISI agent who had links with Dawood Ibrahim’s D-company is another example of the terror route to India via Nepal. Mirza Baig used the porous Indo-Nepal border for theft, kidnapping, murder and spreading terror. He was assassinated in 1998 in Kathmandu.
“Fake currency and drugs being pumped into India from the Nepal border is an issue of serious concern. Fake Indian currency printed at Bahawalpur in Pakistan is being sent into India. In a joint venture a commercial bank of Nepal and a prominent bank in Pakistan set up a bank which has numerous branches along the Indo-Nepal border—this was not so much for banking but infiltrating fake Indian currency, a ploy of the ISI,” says Dr Singh.
During his tenure as DGP, Dr Vikram Singh set up a special task force that exposed this activity with clinching evidence.
Eager to see the newly built Ram temple, Sharan Rao from Bangalore, along with his family went to Ayodhya a few months ago. On returning, all the excitement diminished; his house was burgled, virtually wiped clean including gold and silver belongings. The suspect was a Nepali migrant who worked as a watchman in the apartment. He had scooted with the loot and crossed the border to reach Nepal.
Sharan Rao’s case is not an isolated one. Periodically the police issue an advisory for people to mandatorily do a background check and register their blue collared employees with the nearest police station. In case of an Indian worker, the Special Branch Section can fetch data from the National Crime Records and do a background check within minutes. However, in the case of Nepali migrants, Indian police have no system of doing a background check, especially on their criminal antecedents. “It’s only when an incident occurs that we reach out to Nepal authorities and often without luck”, say some senior police officials in Bangalore. Government offices too have been employing these migrants as watchmen and cleaners.
“Violent crimes, fake currency, theft, organized crime committed by these illegal immigrants contribute to 25% of the crime that happens in the country,” says Dr Singh. Senior police officials endorse this fact on condition of anonymity.
Ensuring safety and security should not be the sole responsibility of those in uniform. Persons employing migrant workers must insist on their national identity card, which they are empowered to ask. Strangely, apartment management associations I spoke to, seem hesitant to activate this security check, despite government mandates. A police directive to employers, RWAs and apartment associations holding them culpable for engaging with illegal migrants, will set the ball rolling. Biometric identification as M.D. Nalapat suggests should be initiated without delay. Crime prevention should be the mantra. India cannot be a safe haven to those who enter our borders illegally.