Police search for Kerala priest - human trafficking

Mangalore Today News Network

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 10, 2015: Police in Kerala said they have intensified the search for a Catholic priest, who is accused of trafficking nine people to Jordan under the cover of conducting a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Father Stanislaus Theesmas of the Latin-rite Trivandrum archdiocese and tour operator Kiran Mohanan have gone missing after the police registered a case against them for human trafficking on Aug. 4, Jawahar Janardh, assistant police commissioner said.

Police are looking for them. Police registered a case against them after [being] informed that they took nine people to Jordan after promising them jobs under a pilgrimage visa.

Immigration officials filed the complaint after the pilgrims and Fr Theesmas failed to return to Kerala at the end of their visa.  A preliminary investigation revealed that the pilgrims were working in Jordan and that Fr Theesmas had returned to New Delhi on June 29.

Fr Theesmas, 49, was serving as an assistant pastor at Mount Carmel Church in the suburbs of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. He previously served at St. John the Baptist Church in Thumba, where all nine travelers were parishioners.   The Trivandrum archdiocese office confirmed that the church is aware of the human trafficking investigation of Fr Theesmas.

Meanwhile, police were questioning the relatives of the travelers who had gone to Jordan. Police said the priest and agent charged the travelers US$3,100 with the promise of finding work in Jordan.    Police also said that they believe Fr Theesmas is hiding in Kollam, southwestern Kerala.

In 2013, Fr Jaison Kollannur, an official with the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council, was arrested for trafficking 40 youths to the United States under the cover of an international education conference, charging each about US$6,000.

A senior police official in Kerala, who didn’t want to be identified, told media that many people who are organizing holy visits to Israel are part of human trafficking schemes to Jordan.