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The Government recently admitted that as on November 28, there are 970 detainees in 6 detention centres in Assam. On the same question asked a few days ago the government had revealed that there were 988 detainees in Assam as of November 22. Eighteen detainees released in six days ?
The data provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs also revealed that there are 646 males and 324 females among these detainees, with Kokrajhar having the maximum number of women.
The government also claimed that men and women are kept in separate rooms and are provided with sufficient essential and basic facilities. It also claimed that the detainees are living with human dignity and they are allowed to meet their family and legal advisors without any restriction to this regard.
Earlier, the government had claimed, “All the basic facilities including medical care facilities are provided to foreigners in the detention centres in Assam. Basic facilities include food, clothing, daily newspapers, television facilities in every ward, sports facilities, performance of cultural programs, library, yoga and meditation. Apart from regular health checkups, indoor hospital facilities in every detention centres are also available with medical staff. Medicines are provided by the district Health Services Authorities.”
Reality check
However, these tall claims of the government fall flat when one hears stories from the ground, from the people released from detention camps, who have a completely different story to tell. MajiburRahman who was recently released from a detention camp said, “The food was of a poor quality and my health deteriorated significantly during the course of my incarceration,”
A woman named, Rashminara Begum, who was pregnant and rearing a child at the time of her detention, recounted the horrors of living in a detention camp after having been released. She said that they were kept in the company of murder convicts and she constantly feared for her life and the life of her unborn child. She also recounted how one mentally challenged woman amongst the detainees was beaten up once for demanding food after the time for serving food was over and the prison staff instructed the murder convicts to beat her up!
Subrata Dey was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Goalpara detention camp leaving behind his wife Karuna, teenaged son Biki, young daughter Sucheta and mother Anima Dey.
His family was dependent on the income from his modest tea shop but now they are living hand to mouth with whatever they could earn by making and selling cloth bags. All four of them have been also excluded from the final NRC.
Related:
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Assam man forced to rot in Detention Camp for over 3 years
Stories from beyond: NRC victims share their plight
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