Assam Govt to Release 'Declared Foreigners' from Detention Camps Soon

Guwahati, July 31, 2019:

The Political (B) department of Government of Assam through a notification has added some provisions for conditional release of declared foreigners from detention centres.

The Home and Political Department of the Assam State Government may release declared foreigners who have completed more than 3 years in detention centres on the following conditions:

Execution of bond with two sureties of Rupees 1 lakh each of Indian citizens; he/she specifies verifiable address of stay after release; biometric of his/her iris and all ten fingerprints and photos shall be captured and stored in a secure database before release from detention centre; he/she shall report once every week to the police station specified by the home and political department; he/she shall notify any change of his/her address to the specified police station on the same day; a quarterly report to be submitted by superintendent of police (border) to the Home and Political department regarding appearance of such released declared foreigners to the concerned police station.

In case of violation of condition, the declared foreign nationals will be apprehended and detained in the detention centre.

It is to be mentioned that people who will be left out of final National Register of Citizens (NRC) to be published on August 31 this year, will have to approach the Tribunals to challenge the omission of their names.

Currently, Assam has 1,145 people declared foreigners by the Tribunal who are lodged in the various detention camps but only 335 of them have spent more than three years in detention.

Inside Northeast’s Campaign #LetsSaveDeeporBeel is now supported by Oil India Limited (OIL). Join us as we continue the awareness campaign to preserve the only Ramsar site in Assam which is facing immense threats (A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention). We need your help to preserve this site of great ecological importance. Join the #LetsSaveDeeporBeel campaign and tweet about it, and do tag us on Twitter. Let’s make some noise!