The Centre on Thursday blacklisted 960 foreigners for their involvement in Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi. The Ministry of Home Affairs has directed all the states to take legal action against these foreigners who had come on travel visas but attended religious congregations in Delhi’s Nizamuddin. In a statement, the MHA said that it has “blacklisted 960 foreigners, present in India on tourist visas, for their involvement in Tablighi Jamaat activities”.
The MHA has also directed DGPs of all concerned States/UTs to take necessary legal action against all such violators, on priority, under relevant sections of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and Disaster Management Act, 2005.
On Tuesday, the Centre had said that all the foreign nationals visiting India as a part of Tablighi team usually come on tourist visas. The MHA had already issued guidelines stating that they should not indulge in missionary work on tourist visas. Despite such guidelines, these foreigners attended a religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz (centre) in Delhi.
The violations came to light after some of the Tablighi members tested positive for Coronavirus in Telangana.
Following this, the government started evacuating people camping there and started tracing those who had already left the Markaz. The Centre also asked the states to locate the foreigners and examine categories of visas of all these foreign workers and take further action in case of violation of visa conditions.
Today, the Uttar Pradesh government seized 211 passports of foreign nationals.
Earlier today, the Home Ministry informed that it had launched a massive effort in consonance with states to trace the workers and their primary contacts. The Centre has identified and quarantined about 9000 such people.
“Out of the 9000 quarantined people, 1306 are foreigners and rest Indians. Delhi’s Markaz had about 2000 Jamaat workers (250 foreigners), out of which 1804 have been quarantined. 334 people who were symptomatic have been hospitalized,” the ministry said.