Illegal migrants deported from Assam

Days after the Supreme Court slammed Assam government for its failure to deport the illegal migrants, as many as 21 Bangladeshis were handed over to the neighbouring country on Saturday.

Police officials said the Bangladeshis, including a Hindu woman, who were lodged in detention centres in Silchar and Kokrajhar jails, for illegally entering Assam, were handed over to the officials of Bangladesh through Sutarkandi border in South Assam's Karimganj district.

They were arrested in different cases in Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts in South Assam, and have served jail terms ranging from two to five years for illegally crossing the border.

This comes on the heels of the Supreme Court bench headed by chief justice Ranjan Gogoi lambasting the Assam government for failing to deport the illegal migrants lodged in detention centres inside jails. The state government had informed the apex court that nearly 1,000 foreigners (mostly Bangladeshi) are lodged in six detention centres but over 70,000 others had "mixed with local people" and went missing after they were declared foreigners by tribunals.

India and Bangladesh do not have a repatriation treaty, but Assam government recently told the state Assembly that the Centre had made an arrangement under which the neighbouring country agreed to accept their nationals after verification of their addresses.