Gauhati HC: Submit plan to deport B''deshi migrants

Expressing its dissatisfaction over the indifferent attitude of both the Assam Government and the Centre in respect of detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants, the Gauhati High Court has ordered both the governments to submit a practical and implementable action plan for detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants from the state.

Bijay Sankar Bora

Tribune News Service

Guwahati, December 4

Expressing its dissatisfaction over the indifferent attitude of both the Assam Government and the Centre in respect of detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants, the Gauhati High Court has ordered both the governments to submit a practical and implementable action plan for detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi migrants from the state. The court has set January 8, 2015 as deadline for the purpose.

The court has asked both the governments to rise above narrow political considerations and take proper action to detect and deport illegal Bangladeshi migrants from Assam given that the indigenous population faces a threat to its identity because of the pressure from the burgeoning illegal migrant population.

Justice Biplab Kumar Sharma of the High Court in the order observed that the Government of India did not deport illegal Bangladeshi migrants even after they had been identified as illegal migrants by the court.

The high court further criticised the weak stand taken by illegal migrants detection tribunals in the state in respect of detection and deportation of illegal migrants.

The court referred to a case involving a Bangladeshi couple and their four sons who had come to Assam with a valid visa from Bangladesh to stay in Guwahati. They continued to stay here for eight years even after the expiry of their visa before they were identified as illegal Bangladeshi migrants by the foreigners tribunal.

The Bangladeshi couple, Shah Anowar Ali and Akhtara Begum, even managed to enroll their names in the voters list here.

After they were declared illegal migrants by the tribunal, the couple filed a writ petition (WP (c) 7036/2005) in the Gauhati High Court against the verdict of the tribunal. The high court after hearing the petition ordered the government to send the Bangladeshi family to a detention camp till their deportation. However, all four sons of the family fled from the detention camp. On the other hand, the Bangladesh Government refused to take back the family.

The high court then asked both the state and Central governments to file an affidavit in respect of this case. But the affidavits filed by both the governments could not convince the court about their sincerity to detect and deport illegal migrants from the state.