The aim of the National Register of Citizens or NRC in Assam is the identification of illegal immigrants living in the state. It is estimated that more than a million people will be excluded from the final NRC, and, the pressing question is: What happens to people whose names aren’t in the NRC? Will they be deported or put in detention camps? Will the state take a more humane approach and protect the identity of the indigenous people while also upholding the basic rights of the illegal immigrants?
Sanjoy Hazarika, the International Director of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and an Assam expert tells us what’s likely to happen.
Millions may not make it to the final NRC. What happens to them?
... If the person doesn’t find himself/herself on the NRC list on 31 August, he/she will first have to appeal to the foreigners tribunals. The foreigners tribunals in its own time will take decision on that appeal and then it can be appealed again in the high court. After which it can be appealed in the Supreme court. So, we are not looking at a process which could be over in a few months. This is a long-drawn process, it’s been a long-drawn one already and you know we have to take into account the trauma that people go through, the mental anguish, the pain of dislocation, the cost that they suffer, and many of them don’t even know they are entitled to the legal aid which is free and which should be offered by the state.
Do you think the people who don’t make it to the NRC will be put in detention camps?
The thought of detention camps of hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands of people in detention camps is a nightmare. It is not what India should be doing. It’s not the thing which we should be thinking about because detention camps are the nightmare of the last century. And we must always remember that the Palestinian Revolution too, originated in refugee camps. So please, we must be mindful of this, we must be sensitive to our own security concerns because you don’t want a situation to arise where radicalisation happens, and there is every opportunity, every chance of this happening in the future whether it’s the distant future or the short term. Radicalisation sets in and people who are desperate, you know, don’t really care about consequences.
Can a ‘suspect foreigner’ or an ‘illegal foreigner’ actually be deported?
People can’t be deported unless the country you are deporting them to accepts them. Bangladesh says there are no Bangladeshis in India. Whatever illegal numbers are there are very small, and if they are identified by their embassies and by the high commission consulates, there is a verification process matching their names and identities and their addresses, Bangladesh has to take them back. So, you can’t deport people just like that.
What will eventually happen to an illegal foreigner in Assam?
Assam government recently did make its position clear in a panel discussion. People who are found to be illegally settled or illegally present in Assam will be deprived of their vote and right to property. Which means, which the minister also indicated, that rights to health and education and livelihood would be upheld. So, this is basically saying that we are not moving people, we are not pushing them out, we are basically making them vanish from the electoral rolls and not let them hold permanent property.
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