Address: Sabarkantha village, Kheda taluka, Borsad district, Gujarat.Problem: It doesn’t exist.If that’s confusing to you, it’s even more so to British immigration authorities, who are struggling to track the roots of illegal Gujarati migrants caught there.Of the 750 ‘‘illegals’’ detained in the UK recently, 400 were Gujaratis, and most of them have given addresses that often confound even Gujarat police.Pushed to the wall, representatives of the British Embassy, their immigration department and Scotland Yard met Gujarat police and government officials here to look for ‘‘closer cooperation between the agencies for faster verification of information provided by illegal immigrants and people staying over in UK.’’According to Ahmedabad Additional Commissioner Ashish Bhatia, ‘‘They were here some time ago and we discussed how communication and exchange of information can be made faster.’’On the agenda is a website on which British police can post data on illegal migrants, which Gujarat police can access and verify.‘‘We are also considering a hotline or designated email addresses through which we can communicate faster, preferably within 48 hours of getting a tip-off,’’ said a Home Department official.So far, when UK authorities detain persons who claim to have lost their travel documents, the information is forwarded to the Embassy in New Delhi. From there, papers are forwarded to the External Affairs and Home ministries before it reaches the relevant state’s Home Department and police—all this usually takes six months.British authorities say they often come across Gujaratis who destroy their passports on arrival and seek asylum—others fake visas, some overstay—to kick off lengthy legal procedures.‘‘After interrogating them and noting their names and addresses they are released till their identities are verified back home in Gujarat. It takes a minimum of six months. In the meantime, authorities lose track of them in the UK,’’ officials said.
