High Court asks Assam govt to finish work of foreigner detention centre in 6 weeks

The Gauhati High Court has allowed six weeks' time to Assam government to finish construction of the lone foreigner detention camp in Goalpara district in order to shift the declared foreigners, who are now lodged inside campuses of six jails.

The court also asked the state government to shift the 177 declared foreigners to the new detention centre.

Advocate general of Assam had prayed before the court to give six weeks time during hearing of a petition in the court recently.

There were nearly 1,000 declared foreigners lodged in detention camps inside six jails. But most of them have been relased on "conditional bails" as per an order of Gauhati High court.

However, 177 of them could not be released yet as they could not submit necessary documents to process their bails.

These persons were detained soon after they were declared foreigners by Foreigner Tribunals, a quasi-judicial body constituted under the Foreigners Act. Appeals of many of them challenging the tribunals' orders are pending in Gauhati High Court. They were declared foreigners after they failed to prove that they or their forefathers lived in India on or before March 24, 1971, the cut-off decided in the Assam Accord of 1985. The accord had promised to detect foreigners in Assam based on the cut-off date.

Assam government recently issued a notification changing the nomenclature of the detention camps to transit camps.

The detention centre, being set up at Matia in Goalpara, about 130-km west of Guwahati will have facilities to lodge 3,000 foreigners. It is being constructed on 2.5 hectares of land and is surrounded by a 20-feet high enclosure. Another 10-feet high enclosure separates the detention buildings for 400 women. Fifteen multi-storied buildings for the detainees, a hospital and a school are also being constructed in its campus. Nearly 90% work has been completed, an official said.