detention centre

illegal immigrants

Foreigners’ Tribunals

2019 Model Detention Manual

Devendra Fadnavis

This follows instructions in July from Union government to every state to set up detention centres in major cities.The state government has identified land in Navi Mumbai for Maharashtra’s firstforThe home department last week wrote to CIDCO, the planning authority for Navi Mumbai, seeking a 3-acre plot in Nerul for the detention centre.The development is ominous in light of the conclusion of the National Registry of Citizenship (NRC) exercise last week in Assam, in which over 19 lakh people were stripped of citizenship. Those who have found themselves excluded now have 90 days to appeal beforeand risk being sent to detention centres.While sources in the state home department refused to divulge the exact location of the proposed detention centre in Nerul, they said the plot has a structure which was till recently being used by an NGO.Principal Secretary (special), Home, Amitabh Gupta said the process to identify the land for a detention centre was started in July, when the Union government sent instructions to all state governments in this regard.According to the ‘’, released by the Union government, every city or district, which has a major immigration check post, must have a detention centre.In the run-up to the 2019 general election, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was then the BJP chief, had promised to implement NRC across the country. The same promise was included in BJP’s election manifesto too.NRC is a subject on which the ruling BJP in Maharashtra is on the same page with its otherwise bickering ally, the Shiv Sena. Just last Sunday, Shiv Sena’s member of Parliament and Union Minister for Heavy Industries Arvind Sawant demanded that NRC be implemented in Mumbai.While the state home department on Friday refused to share specific numbers, an official said there are “large number of illegal immigrants, especially Bangladeshi citizens, in Mumbai.” He said the process of repatriating them takes time and hence a detention centre is necessary. Currently, these illegal immigrants are detained in jails.This source, however, said the detention centre in Navi Mumbai will not be like a ‘jail’. “It will have all the facilities detainees are entitled to,” he said. According to the ‘2019 Model Detention Manual’, detained family members must not be separated from each other and every centre must have acrèche.