NEW DELHI: The US state depart ment on Monday announced visa restrictions on owners and officials of travel agencies in India who have "knowingly" facilitated illegal immigration to the United States, the latest in a series of steps by Washington aimed at tackling the issue.
There was no immediate word on how many individuals and travel agencies would be Impacted by the move, with the US state department signalling its intention to hold accountable people who violate American laws, including "facilitators of diegal immigration
A spokesperson for the US embasty added "We-camot provide a list of individuals or travel agencies the United States is taking steps to impose visa restric tions on due to visa record confl dentialite.
The move comes in the wake of the deportation of more than 300 Indians from the US in three military flights early this year the first time that Washington sned military aircraft for such an operation and the deportation of some 50 Indians to Panama There was no immediate response froto indian officials to the measure announced by the US state department un Monday.
A majority of the deporters are from Punjab and Gujarat, scut abroad on so-called "donkey routes by travel agents. A special reporn by Hindustan Times on January 5 of the deportees found that most had paid between 30 lakh and 45 lakh, with preferred routes being India-Dubai-Columbia-Panama Costa Rica-Guatemala-Mexi co-US, and India-Dubai-Brazil-Guyana Ecuador-Columbia Panama-Mexico-US
The US state department said in a statement that it was taking steps to "impose visa restrictions on owners, executives, and sen or officials of travel agencies based and operating in India for knowingly facilitating illegal immigration to the United State.
"We will continue to take steps to impose visa restrictions against owners, executives, and senior officials of travel agencies to cut off alien smuggling net works," the statement said, not ing that the visa restriction policy is global and even applies to individuals who otherwise qualily for the Visa Waiver Program
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