Immigrants to be ‘pushed back’ into Bangladesh: Assam CM Himanta

Guwahati: All undocumented migrants in Assam will be “pushed back” into Bangladesh within a week of being declared foreigners by the Foreigners Tribunal, according to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Addressing the customary New Year’s media gathering on Thursday, January 1, Sarma stated that it does “not need” a repatriation treaty with Bangladesh for this move to work.

“We are not talking about a repatriation treaty, and we don’t need it. We will just push back the foreigners. We pushed back more than 2,000 people in the last three months, 18 of them yesterday (December 31). So, that will be the new way to deal with foreigners,” Sarma said.

The Chief Minister exuded confidence while saying that Assam will intensify the process of driving out illegal immigrants over the next five years, adding that the state will be able to expel 10,000 to 50,000 immigrants a year if they can be detected.

“If the eviction of foreigners was the hallmark in last five years, the next five years will be marked by the number of foreigners expelled. We are now confident that we can drive out foreigners. No Assamese could imagine this earlier,” he said.

Sarma stated that the Assam government had forced out 2,000 persons into Bangladesh, which he attributed to the policy the state had adopted after the revival of the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950.

This act allows district commissioners and senior police officers to expel “illegal migrants” without involving Foreigners’ Tribunals.

Foreigners’ Tribunals in Assam are quasi-judicial bodies that supervise matters of citizenship. They have previously been accused of extremism and bias, as well as declaring people foreigners based on spelling mistakes, lack of memory, and other trivial reasons.

The state government, with the Act, had essentially decided to bypass Foreigners Tribunals (FT), shifting the power into the hands of the district commissioners. Sarma clarified the roles, stating that only in a complex case, “if the district commissioner cannot prima facie determine that the person is a foreigner, the matter will be referred to the FT.”