New Delhi
6 September 2007
A person holding a passport with Emigration Check Required (ECR)
stamp, who wants to travel overseas for purposes other than employment, will not need
to obtain Emigration Clearance Requirement Suspension (ECRS) from October 1 this
year.
Under the Emigration Act, 1983 a person holding an ECR passport is required to obtain
emigration clearance from the Protector of Emigrants before leaving the country for
overseas employment. This is a statutory requirement.
The Emigration Act does not cover ECR passport holders who travel overseas for visits
other than for employment. However, for the last two decades administrative instructions
have been in force requiring them to obtain ECRS.
Union Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi on Thursday told Parliament that
the ECRS system has no statutory basis. No other country imposes such restrictions on
International travel. He acknowledged that the ECRS system has led to considerable
inconvenience and harassment to passengers.
Mr Ravi said: "It has resulted in corruption in Protector of Emigrants offices and a nexus
between unscrupulous recruiting agents and middleman resulting in the exploitation of a
large number of poor people.
"The ECRS system, which has no statutory basis, is retrograde. It levies a form of tax,
which is the ECRS fee on a poor person apart from resulting in corruption. Though it was
introduced with a good intention to prevent misuse of visit visa for employment
purposes it has not achieved its objective."
The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, accordingly, placed a proposal for abolition of
ECRS before the Committee of Secretaries chaired by the Cabinet Secretary. The
Committee of Secretaries approved the proposal on August 20 this year.
The abolishment of ECRS will benefit about six lakh people who travel abroad every year
for purposes other than employment. They will be saved from incurring unnecessary
expenditure of the ECRS fee. The government gets about Rs 600 crore every year as
ECRS fee.
"Secondly," the minister said, "the uneducated ECR passport holder does not know the
distinction between emigration clearance, which is mandatory for employment overseas,
and ECRS, which is only for, visits abroad. This ignorance is often exploited to send
them abroad for employment on visit visas. The poor worker does not know that the
agent has only arranged a visit visa that does not entitle him to work abroad. By
abolishing ECRS this ambiguity will be removed."
The Ministry of Home Affairs has been asked to modify the departure and arrival cards
suitably so that the government can obtain data on ECR passport-holders going abroad
on visit visa.
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