518 labourers detained for document verification

Mangaluru: Mangaluru City police have detained about 518 labourers at Rosario Hall to check and verify documents as part of a week-long drive launched to check illegal immigrants in the city.
City police commissioner N Shashi Kumar told reporters on Monday that during a review meeting conducted by home minister Araga Jnanendra recently, the minister asked police to check for illegal immigrants, especially from Bangladesh.
Similar directions were also received from the DGP and ADGP. Since Mangaluru is an employment hub, people from other states work in industries and are engaged in fishing activity and the city has good rail and air connectivity, a drive was launched. For one week, documents of all labourers were being checked in all police stations. At times, police visited the place of work of the labourers, he said.
“As many as 518 suspicious individuals or those who failed to produce documents were detained and their documents are being verified. Police teams are verifying voter IDs, Aadhaar cards, phone numbers, call data records, pictures in the phone gallery are being screened, bank account verification and transaction details to check if they are in touch with people from Bangladesh. The department is looking at 20 pointers for screening. Counters for each police station have been set up. The help of bank and revenue officials is also being utilized to cross verify information and map-based information verification is also being launched,” Shashi Kumar said
“The details of 4,000 labourers have been verified. The labourers are mainly from Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. We are only collecting details and will not harass them,” he said.
Syrian sailors in M’luru
N Shashi Kumar said the 15 Syrian mariners who were rescued by the Indian Coast Guard from a foreign flag ship MV Princess Miral which ran aground off New Mangalore on June 21 are temporarily housed at a place near MRPL. The department is in touch with the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The Bureau of Immigration will coordinate with the MEA and the Syrian Embassy and after an order is passed, the mariners will be repatriated.