The Hindu : Indian-Pakistani child in immigration mix-up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 22, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Indian-Pakistani child in immigration mix-up

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, JAN. 21. Three-and-a-half year-old Yasmeen, whose father is a Pakistani citizen and mother an Indian, had to spend a day and a night waiting at the Cochin International Airport, Nedumbassery, starting yesterday after the immigration authorities found that the port of entry as marked in her visa was Chennai.

The child and her mother, who is a Keralite, came in by a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight from Riyadh at 10.35 a.m. on January 20. The mother, Maria Abraham, 37, hailing from Piravam near here, had her papers right, but she chose to be with her daughter till Saudi Arabian Airlines arranged their travel to Chennai. They left for Chennai by the Indian Airlines Muscat-Kochi-Chennai flight IC 974 at 7.30 a.m. today.

Ms. Maria, who is a nurse, has been in Saudi Arabia for over ten years. She met and married a Pakistani national, Mohammed Elias, in Riyadh. She has been to India in the past from Saudi Arabia.

Informed sources at the airport blamed the mix-up on airline and emigration authorities in Saudi Arabia. The port of landing in India should have been checked at the departure point, they said.

Our Chennai Special Correspondent reports:

The Chennai airport immigration authorities allowed entry to Yasmeen and her mother, after verifying the travel documents.

According to immigration authorities here, Kochi airport is not a designated gateway for Pakistan nationals to enter India, but Chennai is.

Mother and child later left for Kerala. They were stated to be on a "social visit."

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