The administration in Assam’s Nagaon district ordered 15 declared foreigners to leave the state within 24 hours on Wednesday.
The orders were issued by the Nagaon District Commissioner Devasish Sharma under the 1950 Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act.
The Act grants power to district commissioners and senior superintendents of police to expel “illegal migrants” from the state by bypassing the foreigners tribunals.
Those named in the orders were Jahura Khatun, Abdul Aziz, Aheda Khatun, Azufa Khatun, Hussain Ali, Fazila Khatun, Anura Begum, Asha Khatun, Nazrul Islam, Rahim Sheikh, Burek Ali, Idris Ali, Rustam Ali, Anwar Khan and Taher Ali.
The orders issued to the 15 individuals said that as declared foreign nationals, their presence was “detrimental to the interest of the general public” and “internal security of the state”.
The district commissioner directed them to leave the state through the Dhubri, Sribhumi or South Salmara-Mankachar routes.
The orders warned that failure to comply would lead to the government taking appropriate action to “remove you” from the state under the provisions of the Act.
The 15 persons are currently lodged at the Matia Transit Camp in Goalpara district and at an Assam Police battalion facility in Kokrajhar district, The New Indian Express reported.
Nagaon Superintendent of Police Swapnaneel Deka told the newspaper there were 19 such cases, but expulsion orders had been issued in only 15, as the remaining four had pending court cases.
He added that police personnel would escort the 15 persons to the India–Bangladesh border for deportation.
In November, similar orders were issued against five persons in the state’s Sonitpur district.
In September, the Assam Cabinet approved the framing of a standard operating procedure under the Act. Earlier, cases pertaining to undocumented migrants were handled by foreigners tribunals.
Sarma had said that the standard operating procedure to use the 1950 Act had been approved, which would, to a large extent, “nullify” the role of the foreigners tribunals.
Foreigners tribunals in Assam are quasi-judicial bodies that adjudicate on matters of citizenship. However, the tribunals have been accused of arbitrariness and bias, and of declaring people foreigners on the basis of minor spelling mistakes, a lack of documents or lapses in memory.
As per the standard operating procedure, if a district commissioner receives information from the police or other sources that a person is suspected to be an “illegal immigrant”, the official will direct the person to produce evidence of his citizenship within 10 days, Sarma had at the time.
If the district commissioner finds that the evidence submitted is not satisfactory, he can pass an expulsion order by invoking the 1950 Act, ordering the removal of the undocumented immigrant from Assam “by giving 24 hours’ time and by the route so specified”.
In June, Sarma informed the Assembly that the state government was planning to invoke the 1950 law to “push back” more suspected foreigners.
The chief minister had claimed that the expulsion of declared foreigners was justified in the legal framework provided by the Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act.
Also read: Why experts contest Assam CM’s use of 1950 law to justify forcing out people into Bangladesh
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