The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland on the return of illegal migrants.
The pact will ensure the return of persons who have no lawful basis to be in the territory of the other country after verification of nationality to its satisfaction. This will also facilitate a Visa Free Agreement for holders of Diplomatic passports as well as liberalisation of UK visa regime for those who are travelling to the UK legally. “It will help in streamlining the procedure of return of nationals who are caught to be staying illegally, belonging to the other party in a specified time-frame,” the government said in a statement.
In another development, the treaty between India and Vietnam on mutual transfer of sentenced prisoners has come into effect from this week. The pact would grant the citizens of the countries, convicted and sentenced in the other country, an opportunity to serve their remaining terms in their own countries and facilitate their social rehabilitation in their own societies. India has such an agreement with several countries.
The agreement on transfer of the sentenced persons was signed by India and Vietnam on November 1, 2013 and was ratified by India on January 1, 2014. Vietnam, however, ratified it in March 10, 2017. The gazette notification was issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) last week.
Giving the details of the pact, the MHA notification said that for transfer of a sentenced person from one country to another, the person has to be a national of the receiving state and must not have been sentenced to death. Among other conditions, the imprisoned person must be undergoing the term after the final judgement on his case in the transferring state and must not be facing any other criminal proceeding, requiring his continued presence in the host state. Additionally, for a prisoner to be transferred from one country to another, he must not have been convicted for an offence under a military law, the notification said.