Immigration complaints to authorities - any one?

7riddler

Dear IMers,

May be a little off topic since this is not (exactly) a VISA related question. :P

Today a friend of mine (He is a Danish citizen) was detained for some time by the departure Immigration at Chennai airport . OK this might be a very common "SCAM" in Indian airport repeated many many times to foriegners. I think they kept him a bit for some possible $ in bribe!. Anyway since he is a good talker and i had briefed him on this kind of common problems! , he could talk through and get in to the departure area. They were telling him that they dont trust his passport - even though he has a valid Indian VISA, and entry stamp at the same airport (2 weeks back).

I personally feel that this should be reported to the authorities - although i am sure that this kind of stuff happens all the time. Where do you think i can lodge a complaint / report so that this gets heard and some proper action will be taken. I dont expect much , but atleast for my consciousness sake i think i should do something about this kind of harassment against the bonafide visitors who come to India. He has noted the name of the official who handled his passport at the immigration..

Any thoughts?

-D

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Haylo

I think that it is highly unlikely that the immigration authorities of any county would be at all interested in dealing with a complaint of this nature, unless it was made by the person who had been detained.

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matt67

Sorry to say this...but why do you trust your friend and not the immigration authorities in India.

Immigration officers around the world know more about passports and scan them for problems/alerts/intelligence about movements etc. Millions of people around the world are on watchlists, trouble for overstaying, on crime lists etc etc...the list is endless.

therefore it is highly likely that your Danish friend was stopped legitamately by the Indian authorities. it is quite possible that there was something wrong with his passport. just because he claims to be Danish does not mean that there cannot be something wrong with his passport or his immigration history that is known only to the experts. Lots of countries share intelligence and data.

so in other words dont jump to conclusions. there is a lot that you probably dont know about this case. How much time is some time. Just because your freind was in india 2 weeks ago does not eman that an immigration officer in another Indian airport cannot question his motives for re entry. It happens all over the world. let the experts do their job. Dont always assume that it is for reasons of bribery and scams.

If your friend wanted to, he could have made a complaint at the time.

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matt67

For example: if an alert Immigration officer had not questioned a man bearing a genuine British passport about his title (he was a Lord), a great crime would not have been solved in 2008. It was an alert officer who checked his computer that solved the case. the so called Lord was an american convicted killer who had used a dead childs birth certificate to get his passport and his title. He denied it till the end, until his aprents saw his picture in the papers and recognised him as someone who has is wanted by the law in USA. read about it

crvlvr

Can you please clarify what "some time" means.? Unless it was longer than an hour, I don;t suspect any foul play.

7riddler

No,I don't think it was more than an hour. May be it was a bit harassing . but again it is his first time in India.

-D

crvlvr

Just tell him, "Welcome to India" and he better get used to Indian "efficiency"

7riddler

Yeah i did crvlvr!. :P

Perhaps (Certainly rather!) the practice of "getting used to it" has a good role in the current state of affairs in India.

-D

Nick-H

Is your friend of Indian origin?

Frankly, I'd be surprised at this being a scam if he was, but I'd be very very surprised if a scam was tried by an immigration officer[s] on a non-Indian-origin foreigner.

As someone who claims to be familiar with "the usual stirs" (and a "stir", so far as I know, in Indian English, is a demonstration or industrial action?) you don't seem to know much about this case. If you do have more, and precise information, and you want a response, then give that information.

If the aim of the process was to extract money, your friend would have been given no doubt that that was what was required. Part of the reason for my first question is that the codes and cultural hints are likely to be understood by an NRI, and are likely to mean nothing whatsoever to a non-Indian foreigner. If your friend was not asked for money, or given to understand that it was wanted, then no scam.

The smallest perceived irregularity in a passport can result in an officer consulting a senior, and possibly in additional questions being asked. An unusual travel pattern (two arrivals in two weeks) could trigger a closer look. Normal wear and tear can result in examination through a magnifying glass.

I think you have no evidence whatsoever.

There is a large notice in the airport giving the contact details of the vigilance department. If a passenger is concerned, they might note the telephone number before leaving. If they feel too disturbed to do so, I suggest calling the airport management for the details, or contacting the Ministry of Home Affairs Immigration Bureau at one of the FRROs.

Frankly, I think you are wasting your time. Even if your feelings are in good faith, I wonder how much international travelling you have done, and how many immigration officials you have met in the process. On one such passage through immigration in UK with my Indian wife, the delay of more than one hour, and the great deal of questioning and hassle that many incoming travellers were receiving, made me seriously wonder why, for instance, a business man would want to go there to invest money.

In fact, one of the ex-pat managing directors of a Japanese company I worked for in London (a very senior man in a huge multi-national company), who made many, many business trips (he'd fly to Japan for a meeting occasionally, and fly straight back again!) told me that he was always given a hard time at Heathrow.

7riddler

Ahh No, He is Danish.

Yeah, i know we don't have a strong case here.

About the travel pattern, may be i wasn't very clear there. He arrived on 30th Sept at Chennai and left today through same airport. So it was a 2 weeks visit.

Actually this incident is pretty funny (and rather co-incidental) since we had recently read a fwd that came in his email about some "passport scam" in Indian airports.

Anyway everything is fine now. Thanks for the replies and support!.

-D

Nick-H

Well, many of this things that circulate in the world of e-mail are rubbish, but that is not to say that it never happens, or that it never did happen.

Years back, I heard that business visitors to a friend of mine had been subjected to a scam at Mumbai. They gave their passport at Window 1, were sent to Window 2, where they were fined for trying to enter the country with out a passport! Obviously there was more detail to it, but it did happen --- but this is at least a decade ago.

More recently, there were reports of regular "fines" being imposed on NRI visiting lecturers to a certain university by the customs officers at the local airport.

These things happen --- but I do not think they happened to your friend in this instance.

Glad you're ok with it now.

7riddler

Yeah, the emails sound quite rubbish. We had read about the one where they said some officers will tear out the passport pages or something. Well we thought it a bit odd and rather funny since there is no value for a passport page - unless "may be" if it has a valid VISA.

Just before the Chennai incident, there was one more at the Kochi airport. He went to checkin and the airline official at the counter told him that there was an error in the creditcard transaction (for the flight booking) and he needed to take the xerox copy of the passport and the creditcard . My friend denied to give the creditcard citing security reasons, but did give the passport for xerox (Which was done just infront of him). Later when we called the airline , they said there was no issues with the transaction and everything is fine!. And they were not able give a proper explanation for the incident at the checkin counter.

Anyway he has reached home safely, and we have decided to take this as one of those little "Life Lessons" that pop up here and there.

Thanks again everybody for the support.

-D

federica

Entry stamp 2 weeks back and then suddenly his first vist to India?

capt_mahajan

Federica beat me to it- I wondered too.

Also,
Thing is, when a US or EU official stops anybody at the airport, it is efficiency, control, security et al

When an Indian official does that, why presume bribe? Did he ask for one?

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Nick-H

The worlwide reputation of the American authorities is, errr... rather less positive than that.

In fact they have become an actual deterrent to visiting their country --- and I've heard American citizens say they even put them off travel.