Increasing strictness on cases of illegal infiltration in Assam, the BJP state government has started using the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950. In this sequence, Biswanath district administration has issued orders to two Bangladeshi women to leave India within 24 hours. The state government wants to quickly dispose of the cases of persons declared foreigners by reactivating this law which has been dormant for a long time.
According to the orders issued on December 20, Aslam Khatoon and Afuja Begum will have to leave Assam and India within the stipulated time frame. According to official records, both the women were declared foreigners by the foreigners tribunals of Biswanath district in the year 2005, almost two decades ago. The order said that after being declared foreign nationals, their presence in India and Assam is considered detrimental to public interest and internal security. Citing the 1950 Act, the administration has directed them to depart within 24 hours and use the Dhubri, Sribhoomi or South Salmara-Mankachar routes, which are commonly used for deportation to Bangladesh.
Biswanath Superintendent of Police Ajayagwaran Basumatary confirmed that the two women are currently in custody at Matiya Transit Camp in Goalpara district. “They are in custody and their deportation is under process. It will be carried out after getting clearance from the Border Security Force,” he said.
A few days before Biswanath’s action, similar notices were issued to 15 people in Nagaon district on December 17. All of them were declared foreigners by foreign tribunals from 1990 to 2021. According to Nagaon Superintendent of Police Swapnil Deka, all of them have been kept in Matia Detention Center and the process of their deportation is going on. The district administration had earlier said that they were moved towards the Bangladesh border on December 19, although there has been no official confirmation on their current condition.
The orders issued by Nagaon Deputy Commissioner Devashish Sharma cited the decisions of the relevant tribunals and said that the stay of these persons in Assam and India is against the state security and public interest. The notice states a 24-hour deadline and the same evacuation routes. Sharma said, “Many of these people had approached the High Court after being declared foreigners, but their petitions were not accepted. They will be removed in due course under the supervision of the district police.”
After the Cabinet approved the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for implementation of the law, its first known use was reported in Sonitpur district, where five people declared foreigners this year were ordered to leave the country within 24 hours. Police later reported that they were absconding and locals claimed that they had not been living in the area for years.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has been in favor of the use of the 1950 law for the past several months. In June he had said that if the District Commissioner prima facie finds someone a foreigner, then action can be taken under this Act without even waiting for the completion of the Foreigners Tribunal process.
The Emigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950 was enacted soon after partition to control migration from the then East Pakistan to Assam. This law empowers the Central Government to order any person to leave the state or country through a fixed time and route if his presence is considered harmful to the general public, any section of the society or the Scheduled Tribes of Assam.
Despite the existence of this law, the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru kept it unused to stop infiltration in Assam, he did not want Pakistani Prime Minister Liaquat Ali to feel bad. After remaining unused for decades, the law is now being actively enforced again with the SOP being approved in September.
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