<p>Sixty-year-old Mariam Bewa (Khatun) was lodged in India's biggest detention camp for foreigners at Matia in Goalpara district for three months and 11 days before she was released on "conditional bail" five months ago. She had been arrested after a Foreigner Tribunal at Barpeta declared her a non-Indian.</p><p>“But we are not from Bangladesh,” said Mariam’s son, Mukhtar Khan. “My mother was declared a foreigner because of a mismatch in surname," the resident of Beragaon in western Assam's Barpeta district claimed. “My mother's surname is Khatun, but it was wrongly published as Bewa in the electoral rolls. She was declared a D (doubtful) voter, and her case was referred to the foreigners’ tribunal. The court asked us to call my maternal uncle, who lives in Dimapur in Nagaland, to prove her lineage. But he did not show up," rued Muktar. “Where will my mother go now?"</p><p>However, the names of his father, Mangal Khan, and two brothers appeared in the draft NRC, an exercise carried out in Assam between 2013 and 2018 to detect the post-1971 migrants from Bangladesh.</p><p>Today, the turbulence in the lives of people lodged in detention camps has resurfaced after the Supreme Court, in a February 4 ruling, ordered the Assam government to immediately start deporting 63 people lodged in a detention centre. This, coupled with the US administration sending back illegal Indian migrants has reignited the deportation debate in Assam.</p>.India needs a fair deportation policy grounded on historical realities, rooted in constitutional principles.<p><strong>‘Centre to decide’</strong></p><p>But officials in Assam have told DH that the Centre has to handle this. "We have informed the Supreme Court that the process is taking time mainly due to Bangladesh's refusal to accept them without their addresses in their country. A few foreigners were deported during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure, but the process has come to a halt after a change of guard in Bangladesh," said a state home department official.</p><p>The 63 declared foreigners are among the 270 persons, both Bangladeshis and Rohingyas, lodged in the Assam detention centre, which can lodge 3,000 people. Nearly 1,000 declared foreigners were lodged in six detention camps inside jails, but they were shifted to the new facility at Matia in 2023 after the apex court slammed the Centre and the Assam government for poor living conditions there. More than 750 "declared foreigners" were, however, released on "conditional bails" following an order of the Supreme Court during the Covid pandemic. But 270 continue to remain in the detention centre.</p><p>Manipur govt said in August 2024 that it detected 10,675 illegal migrants, who were from Myanmar, Bangladesh, China and Nepal. Nearly 200 are in detention.</p><p>The agitation against illegal migration from Bangladesh has been amplified now. Their top-of-the-mind concern is the “failure” of the Narendra Modi government to detect and deport the foreigners from Assam, despite assuming power in 2014 in the Centre, and in 2016 in Assam. "During a poll campaign on April 28, 2014, Modi had promised in Assam that all foreigners would have to leave India if the BJP formed the government. The BJP has won the elections for the third straight term in 2024; and in Assam twice, in 2016 and 2021. But their promises remain unfulfilled,” said Jagadish Bhuyan, general secretary of Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP), a regional party. The AJP was formed out of the anti-CAA agitation in 2020 and is headed by Lurinjyoti Gogoi, a former general secretary of All-Assam Students’ Union (AASU).</p><p>The Assam Accord of 1985 had decided March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for migrants to stay in India. In October, last year, the Supreme Court also upheld this date.</p><p>"The work to update the NRC with this cut-off began when Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister. However, the BJP has divided the foreigners based on religion by offering citizenship to non-Muslim illegal migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan till 2014 by bringing the CAA. “Other nations bring in laws to deport the illegal migrants, while our country passed the CAA to give citizenship to the foreigners," Bhuyan said.</p>.Supreme Court to hear on March 4 matter related to illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.<p><strong>NRC in limbo</strong></p><p>The draft of NRC, which was released in 2018, had left out 19.06 lakh applicants (out of 3.29 crores). But the NRC has remained in limbo since then, mainly due to petitions in the Supreme Court seeking a reverification. The problem of "illegal migrants" from Bangladesh has remained an issue during poll campaigns and the same is likely to figure prominently ahead of Assembly elections in Assam next year. Locals have voiced an identity crisis due to changes in Assam's demography.</p><p>Aman Wadud, a lawyer of Gauhati High Court, ruled out any comparison with the US. "Here, their ancestors were born in Assam, but they have been accused of being illegal migrants or doubtful voters without any investigation,” he told <em>DH</em>.</p><p>Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that illegal migrants entered through the northeastern region and West Bengal and took up jobs in other states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, posing a threat to national security.</p><p>Assam’s ongoing struggle with illegal immigrants has persisted over time. It remains to be seen whether the poll-bound state will address the crisis objectively or with an element of religious bias.</p>
<p>Sixty-year-old Mariam Bewa (Khatun) was lodged in India's biggest detention camp for foreigners at Matia in Goalpara district for three months and 11 days before she was released on "conditional bail" five months ago. She had been arrested after a Foreigner Tribunal at Barpeta declared her a non-Indian.</p><p>“But we are not from Bangladesh,” said Mariam’s son, Mukhtar Khan. “My mother was declared a foreigner because of a mismatch in surname," the resident of Beragaon in western Assam's Barpeta district claimed. “My mother's surname is Khatun, but it was wrongly published as Bewa in the electoral rolls. She was declared a D (doubtful) voter, and her case was referred to the foreigners’ tribunal. The court asked us to call my maternal uncle, who lives in Dimapur in Nagaland, to prove her lineage. But he did not show up," rued Muktar. “Where will my mother go now?"</p><p>However, the names of his father, Mangal Khan, and two brothers appeared in the draft NRC, an exercise carried out in Assam between 2013 and 2018 to detect the post-1971 migrants from Bangladesh.</p><p>Today, the turbulence in the lives of people lodged in detention camps has resurfaced after the Supreme Court, in a February 4 ruling, ordered the Assam government to immediately start deporting 63 people lodged in a detention centre. This, coupled with the US administration sending back illegal Indian migrants has reignited the deportation debate in Assam.</p>.India needs a fair deportation policy grounded on historical realities, rooted in constitutional principles.<p><strong>‘Centre to decide’</strong></p><p>But officials in Assam have told DH that the Centre has to handle this. "We have informed the Supreme Court that the process is taking time mainly due to Bangladesh's refusal to accept them without their addresses in their country. A few foreigners were deported during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure, but the process has come to a halt after a change of guard in Bangladesh," said a state home department official.</p><p>The 63 declared foreigners are among the 270 persons, both Bangladeshis and Rohingyas, lodged in the Assam detention centre, which can lodge 3,000 people. Nearly 1,000 declared foreigners were lodged in six detention camps inside jails, but they were shifted to the new facility at Matia in 2023 after the apex court slammed the Centre and the Assam government for poor living conditions there. More than 750 "declared foreigners" were, however, released on "conditional bails" following an order of the Supreme Court during the Covid pandemic. But 270 continue to remain in the detention centre.</p><p>Manipur govt said in August 2024 that it detected 10,675 illegal migrants, who were from Myanmar, Bangladesh, China and Nepal. Nearly 200 are in detention.</p><p>The agitation against illegal migration from Bangladesh has been amplified now. Their top-of-the-mind concern is the “failure” of the Narendra Modi government to detect and deport the foreigners from Assam, despite assuming power in 2014 in the Centre, and in 2016 in Assam. "During a poll campaign on April 28, 2014, Modi had promised in Assam that all foreigners would have to leave India if the BJP formed the government. The BJP has won the elections for the third straight term in 2024; and in Assam twice, in 2016 and 2021. But their promises remain unfulfilled,” said Jagadish Bhuyan, general secretary of Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP), a regional party. The AJP was formed out of the anti-CAA agitation in 2020 and is headed by Lurinjyoti Gogoi, a former general secretary of All-Assam Students’ Union (AASU).</p><p>The Assam Accord of 1985 had decided March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for migrants to stay in India. In October, last year, the Supreme Court also upheld this date.</p><p>"The work to update the NRC with this cut-off began when Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister. However, the BJP has divided the foreigners based on religion by offering citizenship to non-Muslim illegal migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan till 2014 by bringing the CAA. “Other nations bring in laws to deport the illegal migrants, while our country passed the CAA to give citizenship to the foreigners," Bhuyan said.</p>.Supreme Court to hear on March 4 matter related to illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.<p><strong>NRC in limbo</strong></p><p>The draft of NRC, which was released in 2018, had left out 19.06 lakh applicants (out of 3.29 crores). But the NRC has remained in limbo since then, mainly due to petitions in the Supreme Court seeking a reverification. The problem of "illegal migrants" from Bangladesh has remained an issue during poll campaigns and the same is likely to figure prominently ahead of Assembly elections in Assam next year. Locals have voiced an identity crisis due to changes in Assam's demography.</p><p>Aman Wadud, a lawyer of Gauhati High Court, ruled out any comparison with the US. "Here, their ancestors were born in Assam, but they have been accused of being illegal migrants or doubtful voters without any investigation,” he told <em>DH</em>.</p><p>Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that illegal migrants entered through the northeastern region and West Bengal and took up jobs in other states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, posing a threat to national security.</p><p>Assam’s ongoing struggle with illegal immigrants has persisted over time. It remains to be seen whether the poll-bound state will address the crisis objectively or with an element of religious bias.</p>