By IANS
Hoshiarpur (Punjab) : The parents of a 11-year-old boy found abandoned in London’s Southall have not come forward to claim him as they are illegal immigrants afraid of deportation, says a man who describes himself as a relative.
“He is our child. We are sure about it. His parents are not coming forward to claim him as they are themselves illegal immigrants. We are ready for a DNA test,” Kuldip Singh, a farmer, told IANS. He said he was the boy’s uncle.
The family – from Tanda Ram Sahay village, 40 km from the district headquarters here – is submitting an application to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) later Monday through Hoshiarpur MP Avinash Rai Khanna, claiming that the abandoned boy, Gurinder Singh, is their relative.
Khanna will submit the application to MEA on behalf of Kuldip Singh since his own father and mother – both of whom are abroad illegally – have not come forward to claim their son for fear of being caught and deported.
Gurinder, who the Hoshiarpur family claims is Gurinderjit Singh, was found abandoned at a Southall clinic March 18. His plight of being abandoned and knowing only Punjabi was highlighted extensively in the British media.
Southall is dominated by the Asian community, particularly by a large number of Sikh and Punjabi migrants settled there.
According to the family, his mother Deepinder Kaur, had illegally migrated to Malaysia last year with Gurinder and entered Britain illegally through France this March. They claimed that she must have abandoned the boy after entering Britain.
Deepinder had strained relations with her husband Mohinder Singh, the father of the boy, and was living separately in her native village Jalalpur near here for the last five years. The boy, born in April 1997, had studied in a school in Punjab before his mother took him away.
The family did not wish to disclose Mohinder’s whereabouts except to say he was in a European country as an illegal immigrant.
The MEA is likely to forward the application to the Indian High Commission in London to contact British authorities regarding the family’s claim here. The British police have already said that the boy, who is presently in the custody of social activists in Southall, will be handed over to anyone only after a DNA test.
Khanna said “I am forwarding their case as I feel that their claim seems genuine.”