Police officials and personnel were on Thursday equipped better to handle foreign nationals in the district through a training program on ‘Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration and Tracking’ (IVFRT) organised by the District Crime Records Bureau.
Forms
The training at Vellalar Arts and Science College imparted by an expert from National Informatics Centre focussed on the compliance of house owners, hotels and colleges to ‘C’ and ‘S’ forms.
Four DSPs, six Inspectors, and 26 special sub inspectors, head constables and writers have been trained, Deputy Superintendent of Police, DCRB, A. Suryakala said.
There are over 500 foreign students, mostly from Sudan, Kenya and other African countries, residing in hostels of educational institutions and in residential areas in the limits of Bhavani, Chithode and Erode North police stations.
Students from 22 countries study in institutions in Erode district, as per the registrations made with the District Crime Records Bureau.
In the backdrop of the Government promoting tourism to generate foreign exchange, the training oriented the officials to the procedure of ensuring that hotels, guest houses, dharmashalas, individual houses owners, colleges, hospitals, and others providing accommodation submit the details of the residing foreigner in form C to the registration authorities within 24 hours of the arrival of the guest.
The police authorities will promptly furnish the information to the Ministry of Home Affairs for the purpose of locating and tracking the foreign visitors.
Foreigners
Likewise, through the S Form, FSIS (Foreign Students Information System) is used to capture information about foreign nationals admitted in Indian educational institutions.
It was mandatory for educational institutions admitting foreign students to register themselves. After their user-id is approved by the foreigner regional registration office or foreigner registration office, the institution will be able to fill details of foreign students in FSIS, officials said.