579 passports of Indian nationals seized till date in contravention of Yemen travel ban: Centre

NEW DELHI: There have been cases of seizure of passports of the Indian nationals, who have travelled to Yemen over the past few years in contravention of the travel ban to that country, and 579 passports have been seized and received till date in passport offices across India, the Central government informed Parliament on Friday.

Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh in a written response to a query also said that out of these, “269 passports have been released”.

He was asked whether the government has taken note that the emigration department has seized passports of many individuals for travelling to the countries like Yemen, Iran, Iraq, etc. and if so, the details thereof along with the number of passports seized and released, country-wise and state-wise and criteria fixed for releasing the held up passports.