Punjab govt to discourage migration to Philippines

Chandigarh, May 12
IANS

The Punjab government Friday cautioned people against migrating to the Philippines due to reported attacks on Indians in that country.

The government directed all deputy commissioners in the state to discourage people from migrating to the Philippines in the wake of rising number of attacks - many of them fatal - on Indian moneylenders there.

Non Resident Indians (NRI) affairs commissioner N.S. Kalsi told the deputy commissioners that it had come to the notice of the state government that a number of people from rural Punjab had migrated to the Philippines over the years and became moneylenders.

Kalsi pointed out that some Indians had also joined ranks with Chinese and local Filipinos involved in kidnapping and extortion. Several Indians in the moneyending business had become their target, he said.

The ministry of overseas Indian affairs (MOIA) had recently told the Punjab government that the Indian ambassador in Manila had been informed by the Philippines government that mafia gangs were targeting Indian moneylenders and some of them had been killed.

Manila had pointed out that Filipinos resented Indian moneylenders due to adverse publicity by the media.

Punjab residents wanting to migrate to the Philippines would, in future, be discouraged from moving there or becoming moneylenders, Kalsi said.