India is mulling to blacklist around 300 foreigners who came from 16 countries, including Malaysia and Thailand, on tourist visas but attended the religious congregation of Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin in Delhi.
These people have turned out to be a key source for the spread of coronavirus in the country.
These foreigners were among around 8,000 people who attended the Tabligh-e-Jamaat at Nizamuddin Markaz facility in March, many of whom have shown symptoms of COVID-19, a Union Home Ministry officlal was quoted as saying in reports.
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About 30 of those who attended the Nizamuddin event in mid-March tested positive and at least three have died during last few days.
If a foreigner is put in the Home ministry’s blacklist, he or she can’t travel to India in future.
A total of 281 foreigners were found by the police at the Nizamuddin campus in the last two days.
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They include 19 people from Nepal, 20 people from Malaysia, one from Afghanistan, 33 from Myanmar, one from Algeria, one from Djibouti, 28 from Kyrgystan, 72 from Indonesia, 7 from Thailand, 34 from Sri Lanka, 19 from Bangladesh, three from England, one from Singapore, four from Fiji, one from France and one from Kuwait.
Most of these foreigners came on a tourist visa, an official said.