In order to encourage the voluntary return of illegal immigrants, The Punjab State NRI Commission, set up to resolve problems of Punjabis settled abroad, has proposed setting up of human trafficking victim relief fund.
Any amount or fine received from travel agents or collected by confiscation of property concerned would go to this fund, said Justice Arvind Kumar, chairman of the commission.
Interacting with media persons on the occasion of completion of two years of the panel's functioning, Kumar said the commission has disposed 60 per cent of the complaints that came before it for redressal. He said most of the complaints were related to women who have been affected by marriages with NRIs. Such women were called Honeymoon Brides or Nowhere Brides. The other cases were complaints against human trafficking and related to property disputes.
He said to save Punjabi girls from fraudulent grooms, the state government had enacted the Punjab Compulsory Registration of Marriages Act, 2012, on the recommendations of the commission.
Justice Kumar said keeping in view that a large number of cases relating to NRIs were pending in various courts, the commission had proposed to the Punjab and Haryana High Court to set up two more NRI courts for expeditious disposal of petitions. The commission had also suggested to the state government to give it an independent investigating team or agency, headed by an officer of the rank of inspector -general, on the lines of the Human Rights Commission.
He also said a large number of unregistered travel agents operating in Punjab was a major source of human trafficking. To curb the problem, the Punjab Prevention of Human Smuggling Act was enacted in 2012.
It has also been proposed to the state government to formulate law enforcement units to hold regional-level workshops involving lawyers, police, civil society and public representatives; to launch awareness campaigns in the identified areas involving non-government organisations, media and social workers.
