Anthropologist from UK denied entry into India and sent back. Here's why
Premium- UK anthropologist Filippo Osella who arrived in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday morning was deported to Dubai the moment he landed at the airport
Renowned anthropologist Filippo Osella who arrived in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday morning was deported to Dubai the moment he landed at the airport here. Osella was barred from entry as he had “previously misused his visa provisions," said ministry of home affairs (MHA) official, as per Hindustan Times report.
Senior immigration official in Thiruvananthapuram, who did not want to be named, said Osella arrived at the airport via Qatar Airways at 3:10 am and was deported back to Dubai by 4.30 am. “We have no idea about reasons for his persona non-grata status. It is an official site manned by the immigration bureau and our records clearly mentioned that he was non- admissible to the country," the official said, according to the Hindustan Times report.
This development comes at a time when Osella was due to speak at a conference on Fridayon coastal communities organised by the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Centre for Development Studies (CDS Thiruvananthapuram), Inter University Center for Alternative Economics, University of Kerala, and the University of Sussex.
Meanwhile, Osella’s long academic relationship with Kerala includes a book called “Social Mobility in Kerala: Modernity and Identity in Conflict" in 2000. A section of his research and scholarship on the University of Sussex website, where he is Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies (Anthropology) says his specialist areas are “Kerala, South India, South Asia, Gulf countries: Social reproduction and stratification; popular religion (Hinduism & Islam) and reform movements; migration; masculinity; consumption; relations between economic and religious practice; entrepreneurship and trade networks."
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