Washington raises pressure on India over U.S. human trafficking visas
Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is stepping up pressure on India to end a controversial policy of placing restrictions on passports of Indian nationals rescued from forced labor or human trafficking in the United States, a U.S. State Department official said.
In the next few months, the issue will be raised with Indian authorities during a number of high-level meetings, said the official, who declined to be identified.
This has already started to happen. The official said at a consular-level meeting on Nov. 3, U.S. officials asked Indian officials to scrap the policy. It was also raised at meetings on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.
Since March, Indians who have received U.S. T visas have faced new restrictions. T-visa holders face long delays in renewing passports at Indian consulates in the United States. Reuters reported exclusively last week that they must also provide confidential information to the Indian government that they had previously submitted to the U.S. authorities, including details about who had trafficked them, according to the documents, legal advocates and interviews with T visa holders.
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/u-raising-pressure-india-over-u-human-trafficking-001305895.html
