Districts asked to identify, deport foreigners as per law: Himanta

Guwahati, Dec 25 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said all districts have been instructed to identify suspected illegal immigrants for immediate deportation to their country of origin.

He said the district commissioners will issue expulsion orders as per the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, and then the police or the BSF will escort the suspected foreigners to the border for sending them out of the country.

"Direct Action, No Compromise. As per provisions of the Illegal Immigrants (Expulsion) Act (sic), we are identifying and issuing expulsion orders against suspected individuals," he said in a post on X.

In September, the state cabinet approved the framing of an SOP under the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950 to guide the DCs and senior superintendents of police to expel illegal migrants from Assam.

The move was aimed at tackling alleged illegal immigration from neighbouring countries.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday night, Sarma said that the government has already invoked the Act to identify and deport infiltrators.

"So now, our DCs have been instructed that any person, who they feel is suspicious or declared a foreigner by the tribunal, should immediately be issued an expulsion order. Then the police or the BSF will take action to send them back to Bangladesh," he added.

As per the SOP, if a DC receives such information from the police or any other source that a person is suspected to be an illegal immigrant, the official will direct the person to produce evidence of his citizenship within 10 days.

If the DC finds that the evidence submitted by the suspected illegal immigrant is not sufficient or satisfactory to prove his citizenship of India, the official will record his opinion identifying the person as an illegal immigrant, consisting of a concise statement of facts and the findings thereof with reasons.

Accordingly, the DC shall pass an expulsion order under Section 2(a) of the Act with the direction to remove the illegal immigrant from Assam by giving 24 hours' time and by the route so specified by him.

In case of those declared foreigner by the Foreigners' Tribunals, the DC will pass an expulsion order since in their case, no identification process is necessary as they may have already exhausted remedies available by approaching the high court or the Supreme Court.

Once a person is identified as an illegal immigrant and has been ordered to remove himself, the DC will refer the illegal immigrant to the SSP concerned for capturing their biometrics and demographic details on the Foreigners Identification Portal.

If the illegal immigrant does not remove himself despite the expulsion order, the DC, as per Section 4 of the Act, shall either keep such illegal immigrant in the 'Holding Centre' or hand him over to the BSF nearest to him for expulsion.

Illegal immigrants, if detected near zero line, or within 12 hours from his/her entry in the state, will be pushed back immediately without any further process, according to the Act. PTI TR TR ACD