Detention centres in Assam

Last updated

Assam Detention Camp is a group of immigration detention centers for illegal immigrants located in Assam. [1] [2] [3] The first detention centre in the state had come up in 2008 under orders of the Gauhati High Court. [4] Currently six immigration detention centres have been set up in Assam, all inside jails, in various districts of the state. [4]

Contents

A total of ten centres are planned to be built in Assam. [1] [5] There are many in-construction or proposed detention centres to be constructed following the exclusion of people from the final National Register of Citizens of India. [6] [7] In 2014, the Centre had told all the states to set up at least one detention centre for illegal immigrants so as not to mix them up with jail inmates. According to a ruling by the Supreme Court, illegal immigrants can be held for three years at such facilities, after which they are eligible for bail. [8]

The detention centers are commissioned as a place to house erstwhile residents who were excluded in NRC and finally declared illegal immigrants by the foreign tribunals of Assam. [9] [10] [11] More than 19 lakh people have not been included into the list of citizens created to identify the illegal immigrants in Assam. These people need to prove their citizenship failing which they may be moved to these centres. [1]

History

The first detention centre in Assam had come up in 2008 under orders of the Gauhati High Court. [4] [12] They were first intended as a location for "short-term detention of undocumented immigrants, refugees and people awaiting trial before a Foreigner’s Tribunals". [13] But now they are "synonymous with endless captivity." [13] In 2011 the Assam government, when Congress was in power both at the Centre and in the state, had set up three detention camps [a] with hundreds of illegal immigrants. [14] In 2018, Rs 46 crore was sanctioned for a detention camp by the Narendra Modi government. [12]

Detainees

On 27 November 2019, the Government disclosed that 1043 people were housed in six detention centres in Assam. [4] [15] The existing centres are currently being run from the district jail premises at Dibrugarh, Silchar, Tezpur, Jorhat, Kokrajhar [b] and Goalpara in Assam. [17] On 17 November, The New York Times reported that the government had arrested several hundred people due to the suspicion of them being foreigners. A veteran of the Indian Army was also among those arrested. [18] [19]

Deaths

Trinamul MP Santanu Sen had asked the government in Rajya Sabha on what steps the government had taken to stop the deaths in the detention camps alleging that "most of the persons who died, they died out of apprehension". Responding to the question, minister of state for home, Nityanand Rai stated that so far, until November 2019, 28 people have died due to illness and not due to pressure. [15]

Matia (Goalpara) Detention Centre

Goalpara Detention Centre is located in Matia, Goalpara district, Assam. [14] It is India's first (and largest) detention center for illegal immigrants. [1] The detention center covers approximately 2,88,000 square feet (about the size of seven football grounds). It includes a school, recreational area and hospital. [2] It is planned to have fifteen stories. [1] The centre has been sanctioned by the Union Home Ministry in June 2018, which is funding the entire project. [8] The detention centre is planned to be ready by December 2019. [1] Two boundary walls painted in red colour encircle the camp. The outer wall will be at 20 feet and inner wall at six feet. Watchtowers are also a part of the structure. [1]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Goalpara, Kokrajhar and Silchar
  2. ↑ 142 detainees including 14 minors are kept in the Kokrajhar detention center as of November 2019. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assam</span> State in northeastern India

Assam is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of 78,438 km2 (30,285 sq mi). It is the second largest state in northeastern India by area and the largest in terms of population, with more than 31 million inhabitants. The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur to the east; Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and Bangladesh to the south; and West Bengal to the west via the Siliguri Corridor, a 22-kilometre-wide (14 mi) strip of land that connects the state to the rest of India. Assamese and Bodo are two of the official languages for the entire state and Meitei (Manipuri) is recognised as an additional official language in three districts of Barak Valley and Hojai district. in Hojai district and for the Barak valley region, alongside Bengali, which is also an official language in the Barak Valley.

Immigration detention is the policy of holding individuals suspected of visa violations, illegal entry or unauthorized arrival, as well as those subject to deportation and removal until a decision is made by immigration authorities to grant a visa and release them into the community, or to repatriate them to their country of departure. Mandatory detention refers to the practice of compulsorily detaining or imprisoning people who are considered to be illegal immigrants or unauthorized arrivals into a country. Some countries have set a maximum period of detention, while others permit indefinite detention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assam Movement</span> Indian civil disobedience campaign

The Assam Movement (1979–1985) was a popular uprising in Assam, India, that demanded the Government of India detect, disenfranchise and deport illegal aliens. Led by All Assam Students Union (AASU) and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) the movement defined a six-year period of sustained civil disobedience campaigns, political instability and widespread ethnic violence. The movement ended in 1985 with the Assam Accord.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Refugees in India</span> Overview of legally registered refugees residing in India

Since its independence in 1947, India has accepted various groups of refugees from neighbouring countries, including partition refugees from former British Indian territories that now constitute Pakistan and Bangladesh, Tibetan refugees that arrived in 1959, Chakma refugees from present day Bangladesh in early 1960s, other Bangladeshi refugees in 1965 and 1971, Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from the 1980s and most recently Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. In 1992, India was seen to be hosting 400,000 refugees from eight countries. According to records with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, as on January 1,2021, there were 58,843 Sri Lankan refugees staying in 108 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu and 54 in Odisha and 72,312 Tibetan refugees have been living in India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarbananda Sonowal</span> Union Cabinet Minister from Assam (born 1962)

Sarbananda Sonowal is an Indian politician who has served as Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways since 2021. He also has been the Member of the Rajya Sabha representing Assam since 2021 and also a member of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs since 2021. He previously served as the 14th Chief Minister of Assam from 2016 to 2021 and as a member of Assam Legislative Assembly for Majuli from 2016 to 2021 and for Moran from 2001 to 2004. Sonowal earlier served as the Assam state unit President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 2012 to 2014 and again from 2015 to 2016. He also served as the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Government of India, from 2014 to 2016 and the Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and Skill Development from 2014 to 2014 and the member of the Lok Sabha from Lakhimpur from 2014 to 2016 and from Dibrugarh from 2004 to 2009. He was also the member of the Asom Gana Parishad from 2001 to 2011.

The Illegal Migrants (IMDT) Act was an Act of the Parliament of India enacted in 1983 by the Indira Gandhi government. It was struck down by the Supreme Court of India in 2005 in Sarbananda Sonowal v. Union of India.

Sondekoppa is a village, 30 km away from Bangalore, in the Indian state of Karnataka. During the kempegowda regime the binnipet was known as the gateway of Sondekoppa. Population of the village is about 15000.

D voter, sometimes also referred to as Dubious voter or Doubtful voter is a category of voters in Assam who are disenfranchised by the government on the account of their alleged lack of proper citizenship credentials. The D voters are determined by special tribunals under the Foreigners Act, and the person declared as D voter is not given the elector's photo identity card. In 2011, the Gauhati High Court ordered the D voters to be transferred to Foreigners Tribunals set up under Foreigners Tribunal Order 1964 and be kept in detention camps. The Bengali Muslims and Bengali Hindus who migrated from East Pakistan and Bangladesh before and after 1971 are affected by this categorization. According to Sudip Sarma, the publicity secretary of the Assam unit of the Nikhil Bharat Bangali Udbastu Samanway Samiti, there are 6 lakh Bengali Hindu D voters in the state.

Goalpara region, largely congruous to the historical undivided Goalpara district, is a region that is associated with the people and culture of Goalpara. It is bounded on the north by Bhutan, on the east by the Kamrup region, in the south by Meghalaya and in the west by Cooch Behar and Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and Rangpur in Bangladesh. The natural landmarks are: Sankosh and Brahmaputra rivers on the west, the Manas River on the east in the north bank, and a corresponding region in the south bank; the Garo Hills in the south and Bhutan Hills in the north.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences</span> Health science university in Guwahati, Assam, India

Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences (SSUHS), Guwahati, Assam, India is established in 2009 as per The Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences Act, 2007. The Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences is the only Health Sciences University in the North Eastern Region with its jurisdiction to the whole of Assam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Islam in Assam</span> Islam in the Indian state of Assam

Assam has a rich and complex history of Islam that dates back over 700 years. After the earlier Burmese Muslims and Sindhi or Indian Muslims converted to Islam, after them Assam has significant place on earlier conversion. The majority of Muslims in Assam are associated with the traditional culture and society of Akhand Bharat or Greater India, with about 10.67% of the population identifying as Muslim, the second largest religion in the Republic of India. There are two main types of Islam in Assam: Shia Islam, practiced by about 1.5% of Muslims, and Sunni Islam, a mix of traditional and modern followers, practiced by about 98.5% of Muslims. Sunni Muslims in Assam include various groups, such as Bengali Muslims, Kabuli Muslims, Bihari Muslims, Uttar Pradesh Muslims, Manipuri Muslims, Ahom Muslims, and All Indian Caste Muslims. Some of these groups are affiliated and representatives of multiparty movements like Nadwatul Ulama, Deobandi '(through many organizations)', Jamiat, Tablighi Jamaat and many of other related parties. There are also some Muslims who are not religious believers or followers (non-practicing).. Muslims live in a total of Fifteen districts in the state of Assam.

The National Register of Citizens for Assam is a registry (NRC) meant to be maintained by the Government of India for the state of Assam. It is expected to contain the names and certain relevant information for the identification of genuine Indian citizens in the state. The register for Assam was first prepared after the 1951 Census of India. Since then it was not updated until the major "updation exercise" conducted during 2013–2019, which caused numerous difficulties. In 2019, the government also declared its intention of creating such a registry for the whole of India, leading to major protests all over the country.

An illegal immigrant in India is a foreigner who has entered India either without valid documents or who initially had a valid document, but has overstayed beyond the permitted time, as per the general provisions of the Citizenship Act as amended in 2003. Such persons are not eligible for citizenship by registration or naturalisation. They are also liable to be imprisoned for 2–8 years and fined.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Assam Legislative Assembly election</span> 2016 legislative assembly election in Assam, India

The Assam Legislative Assembly Election of 2016 was held in two phases, on 4 and 11 April 2016, to elect members of the 126 constituencies in Assam, a state in North-eastern India. The overall voter turnout was 84.72%, which set a new record for Assam. The turnout was an increase from the 2011 Assembly election figure of 75%.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was passed by the Parliament of India on 11 December 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act, 1955 by providing an accelerated pathway to Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who arrived in India by 2014. The eligible minorities were stated as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians. The law does not grant such eligibility to Muslims from these countries. Additionally, the act excludes 58,000 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, who have lived in India since the 1980s. The act was the first time that religion had been overtly used as a criterion for citizenship under Indian law, and it attracted global criticism.

The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is meant to be a register of all Indian citizens whose creation was mandated by the 2003 amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955. Its purpose is to document all the legal citizens of India so that the illegal immigrants can be identified and deported. It has been implemented for the state of Assam starting in 2013–2014. The Government of India announced plans to implement it for the rest of the country in 2021, but it has not yet been implemented.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bengali Hindus in Assam</span> Bengali Hindu community in Assam

The Bengali Hindus are the second-largest ethno-religious group just after Assamese Hindus in Assam. As per as estimation research, around 6–7.5 million Bengali Hindus live in Assam as of 2011, majority of whom live in Barak Valley and a significant population also resides in mainland Brahmaputra Valley. The Bengali Hindus are today mostly concentrated in the Barak Valley region, and now are politically, economically and socially dominant. Assam hosts the second-largest Bengali Hindu population in India after West Bengal.

Anti-Bengali sentiment comprises negative attitudes and views on Bengalis. This sentiment is present in several parts of India: Gujarat, Bihar, Assam, and various tribal areas. etc. Issues include discrimination in inhabitation, other forms of discrimination, political reasons, government actions, anti-Bangladeshi sentiment, etc. The discriminative condition of Bengalis can be traced from Khoirabari massacre, Nellie massacre, Silapathar massacre, North Kamrup massacre, Goreswar massacre, Bongal Kheda, etc. This has led to emergence of Bengali sub-nationalism in India as a form of protest and formation of many pro-Bengali organisations in India.

The population of Assam consist of tribal ethnic groups and linguistic groups such as Assamese, Bengali, Hindi speakers, Nepali and Odia speakers.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Choudhury, Ratnadip (12 September 2019). "India's 1st Illegal Immigrant Detention Camp Size Of 7 Football Fields". NDTV. (with inputs from Reuters). Retrieved 2019-09-14.
  2. 1 2 "Final NRC status: 15 buildings, schools, hospital in India's first detention centre for those not in Assam NRC". Hindustan Times. 2019-09-14. Retrieved 2019-09-14.
  3. ↑ "Assam NRC: Workers at India's first detention camp for illegal migrants may end up there". India Today. 8 September 2019. Retrieved 2019-09-14.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Dutta, Prabhash K. (27 December 2019). "NRC and story of how Assam got detention centres for foreigners". India Today. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
  5. ↑ Samuel, Sigal (September 17, 2019). "India's massive, scary new detention camps, explained". Vox.
  6. ↑ "938 persons detained in 6 detention centres in Assam, 823 declared as foreigners: Centre to SC". The Economic Times. PTI. 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-09-14.
  7. ↑ "Assam seeks 10 more detention centres to hold 'illegal foreigners'". Hindustan Times. 2019-06-15. Retrieved 2019-09-14.
  8. 1 2 Kalita, Prabin (8 September 2019). "Centre funding country's biggest foreigner detention centre in Assam". The Times of India. Retrieved 2019-09-14.
  9. ↑ Choudhury, Ratnadip (12 September 2019). Varma, Shylaja (ed.). "India's 1st Illegal Immigrant Detention Camp Size Of 7 Football Fields". NDTV. Reuters. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  10. ↑ Perper, Rosie (12 September 2019). "India is building a mass detention center for illegal immigrants, less than a month after it effectively stripped 1.9 million people of their citizenship". Business Insider. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  11. ↑ "Assam gets central nod for new detention camp for 'declared foreigners'". Indian Express. July 25, 2018.
  12. 1 2 "PM Modi lying about detention camps, sanctioned Rs 46 crore for one in Assam in 2018: Tarun Gogoi". The Times of India. 27 December 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-28.
  13. 1 2 Laskar, Tahmina (7 February 2019). "Detention Centres in Assam Are Synonymous With Endless Captivity". The Wire. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  14. 1 2 "Rahul Gandhi says PM Narendra Modi lying about detention centres, tweets video from Assam". India Today. 26 December 2019. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
  15. 1 2 "28 deaths in Assam's detention camps, minister tells Rajya Sabha". telegraphindia.com. 27 November 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  16. ↑ "Review committee visits detention center". Assam Times. November 19, 2019.
  17. ↑ Maanvi (22 December 2019). "PM Modi's Claim That India Has No Detention Centres is Misleading". The Quint. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  18. ↑ Gettleman, Jeffrey; Kumar, Hari (17 August 2019). "India Plans Big Detention Camps for Migrants. Muslims Are Afraid". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  19. ↑ Gettleman, Jeffrey; Kumar, Hari (18 August 2019). "India plans big detention camps for migrants and Muslims are afraid". SBS News. NYT.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.