10 inmates of detention centres in Assam died in last one year: Govt

Ten inmates of Assam's six detention centres, where declared or convicted 'foreigners' are kept, died in past year, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

This was disclosed by Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy in a written reply.

He said there are a total of 3,331 people lodged at the six detention centres in Assam. A seventh facility with a capacity to put 3,000 people is under construction in the state.

"Ten inmates of the six detention centres in Assam, where declared foreigners or convicted foreigners are kept, died in different hospitals from March 1, 2019 to February 29, 2020," Reddy said.

There are six detention centres in Assam having a capacity to lodge 3,331 people -- Tezpur (797), Silchar (479), Dibrugarh (680), Jorhat (670), Kokrajhar (335) and Goalpara (370).

To a question, he said, "there is no National Register of Citizens (NRC) detention camp/centre in the State of Assam."

During the last one year, from March 1, 2019 to February 29, 2020, three teams of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) have visited the detention centers in Assam and interacted with the declared foreign nationals, he said.