Will Find All 9 People Who Went Missing Trying To Enter US: Centre To Court

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) told the Gujarat High Court that it will make every effort to trace the nine people from Gujarat who went missing trying to illegally enter the United States.

The court was hearing a writ petition filed by the relatives of three of the missing persons, seeking direction to the Indian authorities to trace them.

The missing persons - seven men and two women - last contacted their relatives in Gujarat on February 3, 2023, after reaching the Dominican Republic. The High Court asked the MEA to file a reply.

In an affidavit filed in the court of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha Mayee on Monday, the MEA said it was taking the matter seriously and following up with the Indian Embassies and High Commissions concerned.

India's Ambassador to the Dominican Republic has forwarded a French document of the Department of International Security of Guadeloupe (a French overseas region and island group in the southern Caribbean Sea) dated May 29, 2023, addressed to one of the missing Indians, the foreign ministry said.

As per this document, Sudhirkumar Patel, one of the missing persons, arrived on the island on February 7, 2023.

The Ministry sought confirmation of this note and sent instructions through the Government of France to the authorities in Guadeloupe seeking whereabouts of the nine missing Indian nationals, it said.

As per the affidavit, the Indian Embassy in France learnt about the incident on February 3, 2023, through an email from a lawyer who said they went missing while reportedly crossing over to Saint Martin (a French island) from the Island of Dominica in a sailboat.

The Embassy alerted the nearby Indian Missions besides taking up the matter with the French authorities but failed to get any more information, the MEA told the High Court.

In August, the Gujarat government informed the Embassy that the missing persons were detained in Guadeloupe.

But the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through an email dated August 24, 2023, informed the Indian Embassy that currently there were no Indian nationals held at the French overseas administrative detention centre.

The Commissioner of Police of Guadeloupe also stated in an email that no trace of nine Indian citizens was found in Guadeloupe while authorities in Dominica also said they had no clue, the affidavit said.

In July, relatives of two missing Indians had filed FIRs in Gujarat regarding their "detention in a foreign country'. Newspaper reports suggested they were detained in one of the overseas territory regions of France, the writ petition, filed through advocate Yatin Oza, said.

The next hearing in the case is slated for after two weeks.

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