New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs said on June 21 that the ‘re-application’ of French journalist Sébastien Farcis’ work permit was under consideration, but did not cite any reason as to why it had been previously denied.
On June 20, Farcis, the South Asia correspondent for Radio France Internationale, Radio France, Libération and the Swiss and Belgian public radios, announced that he was forced to leave India after 13 years.
Farcis, who is married to an Indian national, is a Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holder, which means that he has had to apply for a permit to work as a journalist since 2021.
After waiting for months, he was told by the Union home ministry on March 7 that his application for renewal was rejected.
“But with no more work nor income, my family has been pushed out of India without explanation, and uprooted overnight for no apparent reason. I have now applied for a new work permit, and hope it will be accepted. In the meantime, as I am not able to work, I am forced to return to France,” he stated.
At the weekly media briefing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was asked to clarify India’s position on Farcis’ application.
“Mr Farcis is an OCI card holder and under our regulations requires approval to carry out journalistic assignments. He has re-applied for renewal of work permit in May 2024, and to the best of my knowledge, his case is under consideration. He has the right to make a decision in so far as his travel out of the country is concerned,” he said.
When pointed out that his application had been rejected at first, he reiterated, “There may have been other issues, I don’t know, but his application, he has reapplied for journalistic permission. If you look at his letter that he has put in the public domain, it also says that he has reapplied and it is under consideration. He also thinks that it will be granted. Please have a look at his letter. You know, we have this tendency of going overboard without going into details of what the literature is in the letter”.
Incidentally, Farcis’s application had been kept pending for seven months before it was rejected in March this year.
He is the second French journalist to leave India in four months after permit to work as journalist in India was not renewed.
Earlier this year, Vanessa Dougnac, the longest-serving foreign correspondent in India, departed on February 16 after the Indian government issued a two-week notice to revoke her OCI over alleged concerns about her reporting.