Arrest of Indian experts not notified

WASHINGTON, JAN. 24. The Indian mission here has not been formally notified about the arrest and handcuffing of 40 Indian programmers at the Randolph Air Force Base by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service even four days after the incident.

The programmers were arrested, handcuffed and paraded like ordinary criminals for not having their work permits on their person on Thursday. All of them, who entered the U.S. on valid H1-B visas, were released after being detained overnight.

Immigration authorities said the professional visa programme was being abused by people from India, China and Russia because the firms who bring them here ostensibly for working on their payrolls are really hired out to other companies - a practice known as ``bodyshopping.''

Observers, however, said the programmers can hardly be blamed for such a practice, for that is the responsibility of those who bring them here.

In interviews to the media, the arrested programmers complained that they were treated harshly and were not allowed to remove the handcuffs even to go to the washroom. ``It was a traumatic experience,'' one programmer said.

They were brought to the U.S. by two Indian-owned firms, Softech and Frontier, and placed at the base by the Maryland-based ACS Government Solutions Group, contractor for making computer programmes for the Air Force.

There is simmering resentment here against overseas programmers who, locals say, depress the wage rates by working for lower wages.

- PTI

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Section  : International
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