A total of 193 persons declared foreigners by Assam’s tribunals have been forced into Bangladesh in the last two years, according to data submitted by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in the Assembly on Monday.
The figure includes an infant girl who was forced across the border with her mother, who had been declared a foreigner.
Of the 193 persons, 67 were “expelled” under the 1950 Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act. The Act empowers district commissioners and senior superintendents of police to expel “illegal migrants” from the state by bypassing the foreigners tribunals.
Overall, the Bharatiya Janata Party led-Assam government said that it had sent back 1,679 undocumented immigrants to Bangladesh between July 1, 2024 and June 30. The figure includes convicted foreign nationals, identified undocumented immigrants and those declared foreigners by tribunals.
The data was tabled by Sarma in response to a question from All India United Democratic Front MLA Badruddin Ajmal during the ongoing Assembly session.
The data was released on the same day that the Supreme Court set aside Gauhati High Court judgements that had declared 27 persons to be foreigners.
Remanding the cases to foreigners tribunals for fresh adjudication, a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta held that determining citizenship and foreigner status carries a “high field of constitutional significance” and must be decided through a “fair, lawful and reasonable” process.
The foreigners tribunals in Assam are quasi-judicial bodies that adjudicate on matters of citizenship based on lineage and a 1971 cut-off date. They rely primarily on documents submitted by persons to establish their family’s residency in Assam or India before 1971.
Those declared foreigners by the tribunals have the option to appeal the decision before the High Court or the Supreme Court.
Foreigners tribunals have been accused of arbitrariness and bias, and declaring persons foreigners on the basis of minor spelling mistakes, a lack of documents or lapses in memory.
On Monday, in response to a question by Ajmal how many of the “deported persons” have appealed in the High Court and Supreme Court, the government said that no “identified illegal immigrant is repatriated if any appeal is pending” in the courts.
It added: “There is no information available if any repatriated people appealed before the [High Court and Supreme Court].”
Written by Tanya Shrivastava. Inputs by Rokibuz Zaman. Edited by Sara Varghese.
Also read: Why experts contest Assam CM’s use of 1950 law to justify forcing out people into Bangladesh
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