Collect biometric particulars and restrict people to specified locations, say Home Ministry guidelines

The Home Ministry has asked State governments to “capture the biographic and biometric particulars” of illegal immigrants and “restrict them to specified locations.”

The fresh guidelines were communicated to State governments on February 28. The letter without mentioning “Rohingya” has asked local authorities to identify those illegal immigrants in possession of Aadhaar cards and begin the procedure to deport them.

The State authorities have been asked to report such cards to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for further legal action.

The government informed the Rajya Sabha in March that 51 Bangladeshis were “repatriated” to Bangladesh in 2017.

On August 9 last year, the Home Ministry had issued a circular asking State governments to initiate procedure to deport illegal immigrants including the Rohingya.

Following this, two Rohingya moved the Supreme Court saying they feared for their lives and faced religious persecution in Myanmar, requesting the apex court to not deport them.

The hearing in the matter continues in the Supreme Court and it has asked the Centre to maintain “status quo.” Over 40,000 Rohingya are said to be in India. They came from 2012 onwards.

In its latest guidelines, the Home Ministry said, “State governments and Union Territories are advised to sensitise the law enforcement and intelligence agencies for taking steps for prompt identification of illegal migrants.”

It further said the States should “restrict them to specified locations, capturing their biographic and biometric details, cancellation of fake Indian documents and for taking legal proceedings including initiation of deportation proceedings.”

In its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court on September 18, the Centre said Rohingya were a threat to national security and “some of the unauthorised Rohingya migrants had linkages with Pakistan-based terror organisations.”

A Home Ministry official said the revised guidelines were meant for all illegal immigrants, including those from Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Tribunal has final say

An official said identifying an undocumented citizen was a tedious process and the final decision lay with a Tribunal, which is set up in such cases to determine their nationality. “The local police first enquires if the person is not an Indian citizen. He or she will be subject to trial and if the Tribunal decides against the subject, then the deportation process will begin. A communication will be sent to the Myanmar government to verify their address,” said the official.