Out of 63 detainees, 27 people were sent to the detention centre last year in September
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Family members of several Muslims held in detention centres in Assam have refuted the allegation of being Bangladeshi foreigners as the Supreme Court asked the state government to start the process of deporting them.
In the first week of February, the court reprimanded the government for not deporting 63 detainees, all Muslims, held in the Matia detention centre in the Goalpara district of Assam. The court’s directions came as the Assam government filed an affidavit calling all these detainees “Bangladeshi nationals”. The government said that they did not deport these detainees as the alleged foreigners did not give their addresses in the “foreign country”.
On the contrary, these detainees have homes and families in India. A report by Scroll.in found that 20 of the 63 detainees have challenged the order of the Foreigner’s Tribunal declaring them “foreigners” in various courts including the Supreme Court.
The report tracked down the families of the seven detainees. All of them contested the claim of being foreigners by citing their documents and the presence of their ancestors in India for generations.
“They showed us documents that established they had been living in Assam for decades. They had legacy data which proved their Indian ancestry. They possessed land titles. Their names are featured on voter lists. They said they had voted in many elections. Six of the seven men even had their names included in the National Register of Citizens updated in Assam in 2019,” noted the report.
Out of 63 detainees, 27 people were sent to the detention centre last year in September. Sirajul Haque, a resident of Barpeta district, was among those held last year, 21 years after he was declared an illegal immigrant.
Haque’s brother, Abdul Majid, said: “But how can he be a foreigner? Our parents were born here. My mother’s name is in the 1966 and 1971 voter lists.”
According to Majid, his brother had been voting in elections since 1989, had land titles in his name, had even been allotted a home under the PM Awas Yojana in 2018 – and been included in the National Register of Citizens.
“The NRC authorities verified and checked pre-1971 documents meticulously multiple times. If we did not have any papers, how could they include my brother’s name in the 2019 NRC?” he asked.
Majid dismissed the Assam government’s claim that Haque was from Bangladesh. “We have no one there, we have never even been there,” he said in exasperation. “Bangladesh dhola na kala amra kobar pamuna. I don’t know anything about Bangladesh. Is it black or is it white?”
His family then approached the Gauhati High Court to challenge the tribunal order. In order to do so, they had to lease their farmland, sell two of their cows, and take a loan of Rs 50,000 for the legal expenses, which amounted to at least Rs 1.2 lakh, according to Majid.
Ishab Ali, who was recently released from the detention centre after getting bail from the Gauhati High Court, fears that he can be arrested again. Ali’s name is also included in the 2019 National Register of Citizens.
“I can’t read or write. But I know that in 1983, the river Beki washed our homes at Ghilajari village and after that we shifted here to Noonmati. My mother’s name is there in the 1985 voter list. My grandfather’s name is in the 1951 NRC. We have land documents too,” he said.
Talking about the detention, Ali said “I have become very weak. My eye ailments have worsened. Inside the detention camp, we were locked in a cell from 6 pm to 6 am. We did nothing the whole day”.
“How can they send him to Bangladesh?” his wife Nazma Khatun asked. “Let the Bangladeshi government provide a document to him saying he is a Bangladeshi, then only they can say that he is Bangladeshi.”
“We gave over Rs 50,000 to the advocate at the tribunal but he did not do enough to fight our case,” she said.
Lawyers representing alleged “illegal immigrants” in Assam say that the legal process is labyrinthine and demanding, those in the dock are mostly poor and uneducated – and legal aid is scarce.
“One of the tragedies in the entire process is the lack of effective legal representation before the tribunals,” Aman Wadud, a lawyer who has represented many such cases at the Gauhati High Court and Foreigners’ Tribunals. “Hardly any skilled lawyer represents a person whose citizenship is questioned because they cannot pay hefty fees.”
Zaruna Khatun, wife of 67-year-old Falu Miya, languishing in the detention centre, also refuted the allegation of her husband being a foreigner.
“He got a government house, government land. He has been voting for years. Then how can he be a foreigner? Just because the government says so,” asked Khatun, who works as a domestic help.
Similarly, family members of other detainees, 51-year-old Jahedul Islam, 65-year-old Makbul Hussain, 65-year-old Ketab Ali, and 75-year-old Ibrahim Ali, refuted the allegation of being foreigners citing documentary evidence. Three of these four individuals were included in the NRC.
