“Tenant verification cannot remain a circular issued by the police and forgotten by landlords. There must be a simple, digital and time-bound system through which every landlord, contractor and establishment employing workers can register their tenants and employees. Verification should be completed quickly, and there should be accountability when landlords repeatedly house people without proper documentation.
The same applies to labour contractors.
Today, thousands of workers enter Goa through contractors. Who brought them? Where are they working? Where are they living? Who is responsible for them? When they leave Goa, is there any record?
The government should be able to answer these basic questions.”
Goa has heard this argument before. Every time crime rises, the spotlight turns towards migration. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has once again told the Assembly that more than 90 per cent of crimes in Goa are committed by migrants. He has also defended tenant and labour verification as a key crime prevention measure.
But the real question is not whether migrants are involved in a significant share of crimes. The real question is far more difficult: what is the government actually doing about it, and can it manage migration without turning every migrant into a suspect?
Goa cannot wish migration away. The state’s tourism, construction, hospitality, transport, security, domestic work and several other sectors depend heavily on workers from outside the state. Hotels need them. Restaurants need them. Construction companies need them. Even ordinary households employ them.
Therefore, simply saying that migrants are responsible for crime is not a solution. It is only an identification of a problem.
The government needs a proper migration management policy.
Tenant verification cannot remain a circular issued by the police and forgotten by landlords. There must be a simple, digital and time-bound system through which every landlord, contractor and establishment employing workers can register their tenants and employees. Verification should be completed quickly, and there should be accountability when landlords repeatedly house people without proper documentation.
The same applies to labour contractors.
Today, thousands of workers enter Goa through contractors. Who brought them? Where are they working? Where are they living? Who is responsible for them? When they leave Goa, is there any record?
The government should be able to answer these basic questions.
A labour registration system linked to Aadhaar or other legally permissible identity documents, employer details, local address and emergency contact could help police enormously. It would also protect genuine migrant workers from exploitation.
There is another important issue. Crime prevention cannot be based entirely on the identity or place of origin of an accused.
A criminal is a criminal, whether he is from Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh or anywhere else. If the government presents crime figures according to the place of origin of accused persons, it must also publish transparent data explaining how those figures were calculated. Otherwise, a serious law and order discussion can easily become a political argument about migrants.
The government itself says that police regularly analyse the profile of accused persons, including their place of origin, repeat offender status and possible links with interstate or organised criminal networks.
Then why not go one step further?
Publish an annual crime migration report.
Tell Goans how many serious crimes involved migrants, how many involved locals, how many accused were repeat offenders, how many cases involved organised gangs and how many had interstate connections. Most importantly, tell the public how many cases resulted in convictions.
That last figure matters enormously.
The Assembly discussion itself has highlighted the uncomfortable gap between crime detection and conviction. A high detection rate is meaningless if cases collapse in court because of poor investigation, weak evidence, witnesses turning hostile or prosecution failures. The government must therefore focus as much on conviction as detection.
There is also a need for more technology.
CCTV coverage must be expanded in vulnerable areas. Police patrols must be intelligence-driven. Interstate crime databases must be effectively used. Railway stations, highways and border entry points need stronger coordination. The government says PCR vans, highway patrols, tourist police and railway station patrols are already deployed.
But deployment alone is not enough. Results must be measured.
And there is a larger question Goa must confront honestly. What kind of migration does Goa want?
The state cannot have uncontrolled migration while simultaneously depending on migrant labour for its economy. It needs regulated migration, not anti migrant politics.
The government should work with panchayats, municipalities, builders, hotels, restaurants, industries and labour contractors to create a reliable migrant database. Police should have access to relevant information, while safeguards must ensure that personal data is not misused.
Most importantly, genuine workers should not be harassed.
Goa’s migrant population is not a monolithic criminal population. Thousands come here, work hard, earn money and return home. Many have lived here for years and are part of Goa’s economy.
The government therefore has two responsibilities. Protect Goans from criminals and protect innocent migrants from being branded criminals.
That requires administration, data, policing and accountability, not rhetoric.
Goa knows migration is changing the state’s social and economic landscape. Goa also knows crime is a serious concern.
Now the government must answer the question Venzy Viegas rightly raised in the Assembly: if the government believes migrants account for such a large proportion of crime, what is the next step?
Because verification is only the beginning.
The real test is whether Goa can manage migration intelligently, prevent crime effectively and still remain a state where everyone who comes here to work is treated as a human being, not a potential criminal.
