No new law to deal with illegal immigration: Govt

No new law to deal with illegal immigration: Govt

Admitting that the country was facing a persistent problem of illegal immigration, the government has ruled out a fresh legislation to deal with the issue saying stringent mechanisms were already in place.

Under the existing Foreigners' Act 1946, there is enough provision for identification, detention and deportation of illegal immigrants and thus no new mechanism is required, Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran told the Lok Sabha on Friday.

He was replying to a private member's bill introduced by Baijayant Panda (BJD) which sought to identify and deport illegal immigrants from the country.

The minister admitted that there was a big problem of illegal immigration from neighbouring countries, particularly Bangaladesh.

He said the bill seeking regular judicial procedure for dealing with the problem would further delay the process of identifying, detailing and deporting illegal immigrants.

The existing mechanism has quasi-judicial procedure which is less time consuming than the proposed mechanism, he said.

After the minister's reply, Panda withdrew the Illegal Immigrants and Overstaying Foreign Nationals (Identification and Deportation) Bill, 2009.

Earlier, cutting across party lines, members supported the bill.

Nine other private members' bills were introduced in the House, including one introduced by L Rajagopal (Cong), which seeks to derecognise political parties which support calls for 'bandhs'.

Other bills seek to provide reservation for SCs and STs in Legislative Councils and higher judiciary, and amendment in the MNREG Act to provide unskilled manual work on all working days to all adults in rural areas.