Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to look into the “distressful” issue of deportation of Filippo Osella, an anthropologist and academician from the UK, from Thiruvananthapuram Airport. Vijayan asked PM Modi to treat the matter “with the seriousness it deserves and issue instructions to prevent recurrence of such incidents in future”.
Professor Osella, Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom (UK), on March 24 to attend a seminar at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT). However, he was deported on arrival at the Thiruvananthapuram airport.
He is a well-known anthropologist, who has conducted extensive research work in many places, including Kerala and has publications in the areas of social mobility and migration.
“It is distressful that a reputed scholar like Prof. Osella had to face deportation at the Thiruvananthapuram airport when he arrived for participating in a seminar in Kochi,” the CM said in his letter. He further said the professor has conducted extensive research work in many places including in Kerala, where he is researching traditional fishing activities.
Vijayan said, in his letter, that India “has a rich tradition of welcoming foreign scholars and social scientists” for research purposes here and they have produced “valuable” publications. “We need to continue this tradition of being friendly and welcoming to scholars,” he said. Osella’s recent research examines contemporary transformation of South Indian Muslims with field-work in Kozhikode and in a number of Gulf countries.
His new research, funded by the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme, explores new ways to make traditional fishing in Kerala safer and sustainable by co-producing knowledge on marine weather and fish resources with traditional fishermen and weather forecasters.
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