Hyderabad: Twenty-three foreign nationals, mostly from Sudan, Somalia, Kenya and Yemen, were found living in the city illegally. Some foreigners were found living along with their children.
They were found during a joint operation conducted by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), a wing of the Intel-ligence Bureau, the Counter Intelligence Cell, Special Branch and Task Force personnel of the city police.
Though there are thousands of foreign nationals living in the city, only those whose visas and passports have expired were identified and questioned.
Officials said that those whose passports and visas expired recently will be given a grace period to apply for renewal while others would be deported following due procedure.
The searches started at 4 am on Tuesday and about 75 foreigners mostly from Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, were picked up from Banjara Hills, Asifna-gar, Chikkadpally, Cha-ndrayangutta, Golconda, Saifabad, Amberpet and Huma-yunnagar police limits.
They were taken to Asifnagar where police collected fingerprints of illegal residents and information of their places of residence. As many as 23 foreign nationals were found to be living illegally.
“It was found that a family of six from Yemen including children, were living illegally. There are a few whose visas expired recently and who did not apply for a renewal. Such persons were given grace time to regularise their stay by applying for a visa,” said a police official.
“Some foreign nationals have both their visas and passports expired and are living for a long time in the city. Their antecedents have to be verified to find if they are involved in any illegal activities.” said a senior police official from the Hyderabad commissionerate.
Hyderabad police commissioner Anjani Kumar said, “The joint operation conducted by 21 teams was to find illegally residing foreign nationals and we found 23 such persons of Somalia, Yemen, and Sudan. They were given a grace period to regularize their stay by paying a penalty, failing which they will be detained and deported. They also can obtain an exit visa and leave the country.”
Responding to a query, the commissioner said, “Everyone across the globe is welcome to live in the beautiful city of Hyderabad, but it has to be a legal stay. Nobody was targeted in the drive. It was only to find illegal residents.”
A drive was conducted to collect details of 65 foreigners whose records were not stored at the FRRO. Similar drives are being plan-ned under the Cybera-bad and Rachakonda police commissionerates to crack down on illegal residents.
