Indian Ministry of Home Affairs sets 30-day limit to verify credentials of 'illegal' immigrants from Bangladesh, Myanmar

The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has set a 30 day deadline for Indian states to verify the credentials of suspected illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar who claim to be Indian citizens.

Any persons whose documents are not verified in 30 days will face deportation, says the Indian Express.

In a set of instructions issued this month, the MHA asked states and UTs to invoke their statutory powers to detect, identify and deport illegal immigrants. They have also been asked to establish sufficient district-level detention centres to hold individuals pending deportation.

The instructions are part of the Centre's renewed push against undocumented, illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar. The instructions have also been issued to the directors general (DGs) of the Border Security Force (BSF) and Assam Rifles — forces that guard India's borders with the two countries.

In February, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah had said strict action should be taken against any network that helps illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants enter the country, obtain documents, and facilitate their stay. "The issue of illegal intruders is also related to national security, and it should be dealt with strictly. They should be identified and deported," Shah said.

Since then, states like Rajasthan and Gujarat have launched efforts to identify and detain people suspected of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. As reported earlier by The Indian Express, Gujarat has carried out search operations in Surat and Ahmedabad and detained 6,500 such people. Rajasthan sent its first batch of 148 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants — rounded up by police under a special drive — to West Bengal this week on a special flight as part of the process by which they will eventually be sent back to their country of origin, police sources said.

Following Shah's statement, a senior officer in the paramilitary forces told The Indian Express that the Centre reviewed the deportation process and issued "revised instructions" in the first week of May to streamline and accelerate it.

Explaining what has changed with the new set of instructions, the officer said that earlier, there was no deadline for sending back illegal immigrants, and sometimes, receiving a verification report from another state, to which they claimed to belong, could take months. "But now, the Centre has asked states/UTs and district collectors/district magistrates to ensure that an appropriate credential report is sent to the deporting state/UT within a period of 30 days. The suspected person, for 30 days, should be kept in the holding centres, and if no report is received within that period, the Foreigners Registration Offices should deport them," the officer said.

Another officer said, "Usually, in serious cases like murder and kidnapping, we would send our personnel to another state to verify some documents. But in the case of deportation of illegal immigrants, we used to just send it (request for verification) to the state concerned and wait for months."

"The Centre has now asked all state governments and UT administrations to set up a special task force in each district, under the police, to detect, identify, and deport illegal immigrants. They have also been asked to establish adequate holding centres in each district to detain illegal immigrants," the officer said.

Further, as per the MHA's instructions, all states and UTs should maintain a record of illegal Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingyas handed over to border forces and the Coast Guard for deportation, and mandatorily share a report in this regard with the Centre on the 15th of every month, says the Indian Express.

Also, the Bureau of Immigration has been asked to publish a list of deportees on a public portal. This data will also be shared with the UIDAI, the Election Commission and the Ministry of External Affairs to prevent the issuance of Aadhaar IDs, voter cards, or passports to such individuals in the future. If such documents are already held by illegal immigrants, these documents can be deactivated and the linked benefits discontinued.

Several instances of people identified as foreigners from Bangladesh and Myanmar being "pushed back" into their countries of origin have been reported recently. This is different from a formal deportation or handing over of the foreigners to authorities in their countries.

Earlier this month, Bangladeshi and Rohingya inmates of the Matia detention camp in Assam were "pushed back" into Bangladesh, a development confirmed by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. As of the end of April, there were 64 Bangladeshi and 103 Rohingya inmates in the camp, including 41 children.

Sarma said the inmates were pushed into Bangladesh as part of an "operation" by the Indian government. He also told reporters in Guwahati that "push backs" along the Bangladesh border have been "institutionalised" by the Assam government as an alternative to the legal process of dealing with "infiltrators".

A petition had been presented before the Supreme Court this week, alleging that 38 Rohingya refugees detained in Delhi had been forcibly sent back and pushed into Myanmar. However, the court on Friday observed that it did not find any material in the petition to substantiate the claims, says the Indian Express.

An "illegal migrant" has been defined in the Citizenship Act's section 2, sub-section (1), clause (b), to mean a "foreigner who has entered into India without a valid passport or other travel documents and such other document or authority as may be prescribed by or under any law in that behalf, or with a valid passport or other travel documents and such other document or authority as may be prescribed by or under any law in that behalf, but remains therein beyond the permitted period of time".

Last year, 295 Bangladeshis were deported, and this year, until April 30, around 100 Bangladeshi citizens have been deported and handed over to the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB).