trichy despite a notification issued by the ministry of overseas indian affairs emigration policy division clearly stating that all ecr emigration check required passport holders travelling abroad for purposes other than employment should be allowed to travel immigration authorities at trichy international airport have rejected an ecr passport holders visit visa to bahrain the aggrieved passenger has taken up the matter with the ministry of home affairs bureau of immigration and airports authority of india trichy he has also demanded compensation for the losses he incurred by way of spending for a ticket and other expensesm mohamed sulaiman 25 of karaikudi in sivaganga district passport number p 3395586 stated in his complaint that he had planned to visit a relative in bahrain for which his brotherinlaw working there had arranged a visit visa he was to board a sri lankan airline flight from trichy on january 15 at 1010 am for which he completed all procedures and immigration officials too verified his passport ticket and visa however a little later two immigration officials asked sulaiman to produce his work permit stating that they could not allow him to travel to bahrain using visit visa as he possessed ecr passport subsequently they asked him to leave after duly cancelling his visa permit by stamping cwop cancelled without prejudice he stated in the complaintsince he had not planned to go for employment purpose sulaiman explained to the officials that he will go to bahrain as a tourist only however the immigration officials were unrelenting and sent him out speaking to toi sulaiman said i do not know why the immigration officials rejected my travel i have a proper passport visit visa and tickets including return ticket dated february 13 2019 i have spent around rs 20000 for this purpose he addedwhen contacted an immigration official at trichy airport who did not want to be named said that normally travellers with a low profile who held visit visa would not be allowed to go abroad if anyone had a work permit there would not be any problem as most people who travelled abroad on visit visa landed in problems like overstay it was to avert such situations that immigration officials sometimes restricted travellers the official said when asked whether immigration officials had the right to restrict a traveller assuming that he would visit overseas countries only for employment purposes the officials said there is no any such rule but based on instructions by higher officials travellers having ecr passport are being rejected based on doubts the official added let the passport speak who its holder is using the word low profile is unacceptable they are working class people and citizens of india said v b jaganath of the trichy intracity development endeavors tides he alleged that immigration officials might have been exploiting the ignorance of travellers to spoil the lives of hundreds of workingclass people all these days when contacted airport director k gunasekaran confirmed that he had received a complaint from