Guwahati (Assam) – At a time when the State is on the edge over the illegal Bangladeshi migrants’ issue, Amnesty India today said that Assam must end human rights violation against persons declared foreigners by the Foreigners Tribunals and held in detention centres across the State.
Releasing a report, ‘Between Fear and Hatred: Surviving Migration Detention in Assam’, Amnesty India said that detention of “irregular foreigners” in detention centres within prisons, often indefinitely, has become routine in Assam.
The process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is only adding to the prevailing uncertainty and fracture lines in Assam. There have been at least 16 reported instances this year of people committing suicide for fear of losing their citizenship.

Amnesty India’s questions to the Assam government on detention centres remain unanswered. “Time has come for the Assam government and the Government of India to take concrete measures to address inhumane conditions in detention centres in the State. The Assam government must seek non-custodial alternatives to detention wherever possible, and only treat detention of irregular migrants as a last resort,” said the human rights organisation.

“The Government of Assam should remember that the constitutional right to life and personal liberty is available to all persons, including foreigners. Detention must be an exception, and used only as a last resort, while dealing with irregular migrants. Our study found a number of persons who have been in detention centres for months and even years, without any access to parole. They are separated from their families and have limited contact with the outside world. Other than severely restricting movement and access to livelihood, indefinite detention has devastating effects on the mental health of those detained and their families,” said Aakar Patel of Amnesty India.

The report is based on semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, including individuals who had been detained and their families, doctors who work in prisons in Assam, academicians, lawyers who practise in the Foreigners Tribunals and Gauhati High Court, a former member of a Foreigners Tribunal and a former Special Monitor of the National Human Rights Commission. Relevant laws and policies, as well as orders from appellate courts, were also examined.

Amnesty India found that there is no statutory limit on the period for which individuals declared as foreigners can be detained; individuals declared as foreigners are kept inside criminal prisons along with convicts and under-trial prisoners, circumstances and conditions of detention harm individuals’ mental and physical health, while the Foreigners Tribunals, which adjudicate citizenship cases, follow flawed processes to identify irregular foreigners.

As on September 25, 1,037 persons declared foreigners are being detained in detention centres in Assam.

[contributed by Phukan B]

  Amnesty, Assam, HUMAN RIGHTS, naked truth