By IANS
Chandigarh : The Punjab government Wednesday urged the ministry of external affairs (MEA) to help illegal immigrants in getting themselves regularised through amnesty schemes in other countries, where they often land up on the wrong side of the law in the craze to settle abroad.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal wrote a letter to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee urging him to advise Indian consulates and embassies across the world to provide all possible assistance to Punjabi immigrants to avail the benefit of amnesty schemes for regularising illegal immigrants in these countries.
The chief minister said that the state government was ready to carry out an extensive exercise for facilitating identification of the applicants.
The letter pointed out that a number of illegal immigrants from Punjab could not avail amnesty schemes in other countries for lack of proper documents like passports. This not only leads to their prosecution but also inflicts mental torture on their families in Punjab.
Badal requested that all such illegal immigrants should be issued duplicate passports.