Assam Government Must pressurize Delhi for foolproof deportation mechanism

ILLEGAL BANGLADESHIS

* Since 1985, the FTs in Assam have declared over 84,000 persons – mostly from Bangladesh — as illegal foreigners

* However, only six ‘Declared Foreigners’ have been deported since March 2013.

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Sarbananda Sonowal-led government must pressurize the Central government for chalking out a foolproof mechanism for deportation of illegal Bangladeshis from Assam. This is important especially because the present system has failed to serve its purpose. As per data of the Home and Political Department, Government of Assam, since March 2013 only six declared foreign nationals hailing from Bangladesh have been deported.

Since 1985, the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) in Assam have declared over 84,000 persons – mostly from Bangladesh — as illegal foreigners.

Before March 2013, all declared foreigners used to be pushed back to Bangladesh. However, following a change of policy agreed upon by the Governments of India and Bangladesh in March 2013, India started officially deporting the illegal Bangladeshis to their country.

As per the new policy, if any person is declared as ‘illegal Bangladeshi’ by Foreigners Tribunal (FT) then the Government of Assam sends the detailed address of such persons to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). And on the basis of such feedback, the Government of India sends the detailed addresses to the Government of Bangladesh. However, deportation is possible only after the Bangladesh government verifies the addresses and agrees for the official deportation process to be carried out.

Prior to this new system, the Assam government — with due permission from the Central government — used to take the declared foreigners to pre-selected spots along the Indo-Bangladesh border and then push them back to their country.

Apparently, the presently followed official deportation process is better than the earlier ‘push-back’ system. But, the fact remains that the deportation process has only put up certain hurdles for tackling the illegal foreigners. Hence, it has practically served little purpose for the Government of India.

Problem arises at that stage when the Government of Bangladesh verifies the addresses of the declared Bangladeshi nationals as communicated by the Assam Government. In the majority of such instances, the set reply from the Government of Bangladesh to the Government of India is “Address not found”, which is then forwarded to the Government of Assam.

Sources also informed that the Government of Bangladesh has been accepting those nationals with valid passports and visas of that country but who may have overstayed in India. Since March 2013, the Bangladesh government has accepted 221 such Bangladeshi nationals from the Indian government.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen recently said his country has requested India to provide a list of any Bangladesh nationals living illegally in the country and it will allow them to return.

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