Most deported foreigners in 2023-24 were Nigerian nationals: Home Ministry report

India deported the most foreigners from Nigeria, Bangladesh, and Uganda in 2023-24, while granting Long-Term Visas to minority communities.

The highest number of foreigners deported from India were from Nigeria, followed by Bangladesh and Uganda, the Union Home Ministry said in its annual report for 2023-24.

A total of 2,331 foreigners were deported by the Foreigners Regional Registration Officers (FRROs) from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024. Of these, 1,470 people belonged to Nigeria, 411 people were from Bangladesh and 78 belonged to Uganda. The FRRO maintains the records of foreigners who enter India on valid documents. The deportation can be for overstaying the visa and flouting visa conditions among others.

During the same period, 1,112 Long-Term Visas (LTV) were granted by the Home Ministry for minority communities from Pakistan. LTVs, ranging from a year to five years, are precursors to citizenship.

Since 2019, all citizenship applications are being processed online and between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024, a total of 1,699 citizenship certificates have been granted by both the Union and State governments. The Home Ministry has delegated powers to State government officials in 31 districts in nine States to grant citizenship to foreigners under the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955. “Out of this, 1,278 were granted by registration under Section 5 and 421 were granted by naturalisation under Section 6 of the Citizenship Act, 1955,” the report said. The data does not reflect the number of citizenship certificates granted under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA).

The Ministry report stated that CAA is a focused legislation, which seeks to provide a relaxation to aforesaid specific communities from the specified countries with a clear cut-off date. “It is a compassionate and ameliorative legislation,” the Ministry said.

CAA fast-tracks citizenship to undocumented migrants belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan who had come to India before December 31, 2014.

Around 98 lakh foreigners visited India during the period and the highest number of visitors were from Bangladesh (21,08,734), followed by United States of America (17,37,549), United Kingdom (9,86,954), Australia (4,72,913), Canada (4,00,417), Sri Lanka (2,85,664), Malaysia (2,80,578), Germany (2,39,271), Nepal (2,02,197) and Singapore (2,00,708). The 10 countries accounted for 70.27% of the total arrival of foreigners.