Over 95,000 foreign offenders in record till Nov 2023: MHA to Lok Sabha

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that it has a record of more than 95,000 foreign offenders.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanad Rai, shared the input in a written reply to a query of a legislator, saying, "As of November 2023, the National Database of Offenders of Foreign Origin (NDOFO) has records of more than 95 thousand foreign offenders."

The MoS further said the NDOFO was established exclusively for the use of law enforcement agencies for the purpose of effective investigation and tracking repeat offenders of foreign origin under the Inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS).

Rai said the NDOFO uses data maintained by the States and Union Territories on "e-Prison" (the National Prisons Information Portal), as per protocols notified for ePrison.

He was responding to a question "Whether any proposal is under consideration of the government to create a registry of foreigners involved in crimes in India, and the extent to which the new registry would assist the law enforcement agencies to swiftly verify information about a suspect from another country and help in the quick disposal of cases relating to matrimonial disputes, visa fraud, illegal immigration, cyber crimes, etc.?".