Bid to settle immigration dispute

Date: 16/04/1998

By Mark Turner

SENIOR officials from India and the EU will seek ways to settle a long-running immigration dispute when they meet in London next week.

The Union will be pressing New Delhi to make it easier for the 9,000 illegal Indian immigrants held in European detention centres to return home, while India is likely to push for more European entry visas for business representatives.

The meeting is expected to establish a new middle-ranking working group on immigration and 'readmission', which could begin talks later this year.

Union officials say that although there are thousands of Indians in European detention centres who want to return home, New Delhi has been very slow to provide them with the necessary documentation.

Although many of the immigrants previously had passports which they used to leave India for a third country and then move on to Europe, these have often been lost or jettisoned.

Without proper papers, the Indian authorities are reluctant to issue new entry documents. "This seems to be fuelled by fears that many of the immigrants may come from elsewhere, like Pakistan," said one official.

Next week's meeting will also give EU officials a first chance to examine the new Indian government's promises to dismantle import restrictions originally introduced to reduce the sub-continent's balance of payments deficit in the 1960s.

Indian Commerce Minister Rama Krishna Hegde announced this week that he would lift trade barriers on 340 items including fish, wooden dolls and hair-bands, responding to international and European pressure to open markets.

EU diplomats declined to comment until they had been given a more thorough explanation of the proposals, but expressed hopes that the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) administration would phase out restrictions more quickly than its predecessors.

"The fact that the BJP has agreed to stick by its World Trade Organisation commitments is encouraging," said an official, "although it would have been surprising if it had not."

Meanwhile, the European Commission claims EU ties with India are steadily expanding, despite apparently slow progress on the 'new enhanced partnership', disputes over anti-dumping duties on unbleached cotton and the country's exclusion from the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) this month.

Talks are beginning on a maritime transport deal. There are hopes of agreements on satellite navigation and research, and negotiations are under way on mutual market opening for textiles and India's possible diversification into new export activities such as petrochemicals.

Preview of meeting between EU and Indian officials to discuss an immigration dispute, London, April 1998.