More than 50 foreigners in Assam detention centres to be released soon

india

Updated: Nov 06, 2019 01:32 IST

Fifty six foreigners out of the more than 300 who have been in detention centres in Assam for more than three years will be released in the coming days, an official of the Assam Police said on Tuesday.

“We have received sanction to release 56 declared foreigners who have applied. They belong to 11 districts. We are instructing the district superintendents of police who will complete remaining formalities,” said Mukul Saikia, Superintendent of Police, Border Organisation of the Assam Police.

In May, the Supreme Court ordered conditional release of declared foreigners who have completed three years or more in detention. The conditions for their release include two sureties of Rs 1,00,000 each, a verifiable address, collection of their bio-metric information including all ten fingerprints and iris if possible and photos which shall be captured and kept in a secured database and the person must report to the police station every week.

In July, the state government informed the Assembly that out of 1145 people in six detention centres in the state, 335 have spent three years or more. However, only about a dozen were released earlier.

A senior official of the state’s Home and Political department speaking on condition of anonymity said there were shortcomings in the applications submitted by those in detention which prevented their release.

“Not just the addresses of those in detention, we also verified the addresses of those who have come forward with sureties for their release,” said an official of the Border Organisation. This official said some applications for release are pending and will be expedited.

Following controversy over death of two declared foreigners who were in detention centres in October, after their families refused to take their bodies for days demanding they be declared Indians, the state government appointed a committee to review the legal aid status and health status of each detainee and provide recommendation for improvement.

The families of the two declared foreigners who died in October said they were Indian citizens who were wrongly declared foreigners by the foreigners’ tribunals.

D Mukherjee, the Deputy Inspector General of Police heading the committee said they have started the work and recently concluded a three-day visit to the Jorhat detention centre.

Mukherjee said the members of the committee along with local legal aid officials interacted with the detainees and members of community organisations and informed them of the ways to seek help for their release once they have completed three years.

The committee will submit its report in three months.

The state has six detention centres which run out of jails. The first exclusive detention centre with a capacity to hold 3000 people is under construction in Matia in Goalpara district.