Shamshabad: 44 women flyers with fake visas detained at RGIA

Shamshabad: The immigration officials at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) on Tuesday detained 44 women passengers bound for Kuwait as they were found to be having fake visa documents.

These passengers came in different groups to travel to Kuwait by Jazeera Airways. They are from Guntur and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Tamil Nadu. According to sources, when the immigration officials found that their documents were fake, these passengers were separated from the rest of the passengers and were questioned. The women only said that there was nothing wrong with their documents. Beyond this, they did not answer any questions.

The officials then filed a police complaint with the Shamshabad airport police, who took them into custody. Vijay Kumar, Inspector of police of Shamshabad, said that while investigating, they found that all the women passengers had two visas, one was a visit visa and the other was an employment visa. All of them had bypassed the POE (protector of emigrants) rule, he said.

"When questioned, the women said they did not have any idea about POE and they all only knew the agents who had helped them in getting their visas. The POE is very important for any person traveling to a foreign country as it assures the passengers that the Government of India is their protector on foreign soil," the inspector said. He said preliminary findings indicate that these women passengers were cheated by the travel agent or agents and were given the fake visas to fly via Jazeera

Airways and it is being suspected that there is an entire syndicate of travel agents mafia behind this. A case against the travel agents based on the description given by the women and the matter is being investigated. Police will send a team to the states from where the women arrived and will alert the states concerned about the fraud, the officer added.