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Punjab youth in Spain caught in cleftstick
WSN Network 

Over 2,000 Indian youth, majority of them from Punjab, participated in a protest march in the Spanish city of Barcelona last Saturday to press the Government of India to hand them the elusive "police-clearance certificate" which will enable them to become legal immigrants.

In October 2008, the Spanish government had altered certain immigration norms for the citizens of India, Pakistan and some other Asian countries and asked them to obtain police clearance certificates from federal governments and not police authorities.

On April 27, the Spanish government had set three-month deadline for accepting these certificates from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in India.

Supported by a Spanish human rights organisation, the protesters walked 2 km to reach Centre Barcelona, where they had special permission to stage a protest at 6 pm on Saturday.

The Spanish government has said that it has no objection over accepting these people as immigrants, if only they obtained the elusive certificate from the Indian ministry.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur said she was aware of the problem and the MEA was in touch with the Spanish authorities on the issue.

Several thousand Punjabi youth were stranded in Spain for want of a document from the Central Government. Nearly 5,000 youth in Spain are from districts Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Jalandhar and they have each worked for at least three years in the hotel industry and farms of Spain, after its has become a new destination for Punjabi youth seeking greener pastures abroad. They have moved on from construction jobs.

29 July  2009
 

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