During the hearing on April 7, the Division bench of Justices Shivaji Pandey and Partha Sarthy of the Patna High Court asked the Centre to apprise the court of what measures are taken when the native country is not ready to take back illegal migrants. When the amicus curiae informed the bench that illegal migrants are supposed to be kept in detention centres, the court directed the state government to file an affidavit on whether any such detention centre has been created by the state government for illegal migrants.

Background

Two Bangladeshi migrants Marium Khatoon @ Mariyam Parveen and Ms. Mausmi Khatoon, were arrested from Patna Railway station a few years ago and have been kept in an After Care Home, without any criminal case being lodged against them.

The court was informed by Additional Solicitor General of India, Dr. KN Singh that a letter had been sent to the Bangladeshi Embassy for their repatriation, but no response was received. While the counsel for the State submitted to the court that the petitioners were being kept in After Care Home called Nari Niketan in proper manner and there is no such complaint that they are being kept in very bad manner, the counsel for the petitioners pointed out that he was not allowed to take Power (power of attorney) from the petitioner. Thus, the court found it necessary to ensure that the petitioners are treated in a good manner and constituted a team of three Advocates; one male Advocate and two female Advocates, to know about the fact that in what manner they are being kept in After Care Home.

The court directed them to visit the Home on April 10 and directed that during such interaction with the petitioners, there will be no intervention from any official or any person. The court emphasized that any intervention would be taken seriously and the court will issue contempt against any such person.

The amicus curiae, Ashish Giri, submitted to the court that such illegal migrants cannot be kept in the After Care Home for a longer but, they should be shifted in Holding Centre or Detention Centre. The court then directed the state government to inform whether any such detention centre has been set up to deal with illegal migrants found in Bihar. The court had also sought response from the Central government on the status of their communication with Bangladeshi Embassy for repatriation of the petitioners and also sought response on how illegal migrants are to be dealt with if the native country is not ready to accept them back.

The April 7 order may be read here:

During the hearing held on April 26, the committee of the three lawyers submitted their report, in which it was mentioned that the migrants did not raise any grievance of bad treatment and are being provided with basic right to food, cloth and shelter as well as medical assistance. The report also stated that with the exception of Marium Khatoon, the rest of them want to return to their homeland after proper assistance and approval from the government. Khatoon wishes to be rehabilitated in India itself.

About detention centres in the state, the government in its affidavit stated that in jail premises itself the migrants have been kept separately, so that should be treated as a Detention Centre and also an effort is being made to create a Detention Centre inside Beur Jail.

The court, dissatisfied with this response, said, “Detention Centre cannot be created inside the jail premises, rather it should be created in terms of the instruction given by the Central Government giving detail the manner the State has to create Detention Centre, so it is primary duty to create Detention Centre with that terms.” The court then sought a more detailed response from the state on this matter.

It is pertinent to note here that all the 6 detention camps in Assam which house ‘declared foreigners’ operate out of makeshift facilities in local prisons and function as per provisions laid down in the Assam jail manual. These are located in Goalpara, Tezpur, Kokrajhar, Dibrugarh, Silchar and Jorhat.

When the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) failed to respond to the court’s query, the court warned that if a proper affidavit is not filed, contempt will be issued against the concerned official.

While concluding the order, the court observed, “As it is a very serious matter that three Bangladeshi girls entered into India and they are being kept in Nari Niketan, not in Detention Centre. As the Government of Bihar has failed to create Detention Centre.”

Therefore the court ordered, “A detailed affidavit should be filed by the Union of India especially by the State of Bihar with respect to creation of Detention Centre for foreign national.”

The April 26 order may be read here:

It is pertinent to note here that in January 2019, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had issued “Model Detention Centre/ Holding Centre Manual” to all state governments and Union Territories for implementation and compliance. While the document has not been made public, the responses provided to the questions asked during Parliament sessions give insight into what this document entails.

On July 16, 2019, in response to questions raised by TN Prathapan, the MHA elaborated on the provisions of the ‘Model’ detention center manual saying, “The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a ‘Model Detention Centre/Holding Centre/Camp Manual’ for implementation and compliance. The Model Detention Centre Manual, inter-alia, prescribes the amenities to be provided in the Detention Centres to maintain standards of living in consonance with human dignity including electricity with generator, drinking water, hygiene, accommodation with beds, sufficient toilets/baths with provisions of running water, communication and medical facilities, provisions for kitchen and recreational facilities.” 

In another response on July 24, 2019 the MHA additionally stated that the manual “also provides for provision of properly segregated accommodation for male and female detainees, deployment of adequate lady security staff commensurate with the requirement of women detainees, special attention to the women/ nursing mother etc. It has also been provided that members of the same family should not be separated and all family members may be housed in the same detention centre.”

Related:

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Where hope fades and time stands still: Assam’s Detention Camps
Patna HC asks gov’t how to deal with illegal migrants if not deported

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The Karnataka High Court once again pulled up Bengaluru Police, this time for demolishing makeshift homes at Marathhalli subdivision in Bellandur in January 2020. Last time the court had reprimanded the police and the government when prominent personalities like Ramchandra Guha were detained by the police for holding a peaceful protest.

While the court asked the police to state evidence basis which the conclusion was drawn that the inhabitants of the makeshift homes were Bangladeshi nationals, Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka asked the police, “By looking at the face of a person, can one be identified as being a Bangladeshi national?”.

Several people were rendered homeless as the police demolished the makeshift homes after evicting the residents, in a demolition drive on January 12, 18 and 19. A plea was hence filed by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties challenging these demolitions. The petition claimed that many residents in the migrant settlement were from Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Karnataka.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has stated that the demolition was unauthorized while it acted upon the police direction.

The Court, on February 10, has hence directed that the inhabitants of the homes be rehabilitated and has directed the government to submit a comprehensive rehabilitation scheme to that regard.

The counsel for Karnataka state government submitted that the Marathahalli station police inspector B P Girish has been suspended for providing false information that led to the incident (demolition). The residents of the sheds have been identified as migrants from Assam and Telangana.” Hence, this incident has brough to light the misinformation being spread by Bengaluru police time and again that there are many illegal Bangladeshis living in Karnataka.

The Bench comprising of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Hemant Chandangoudar also ordered the state to provide either monetary assistance or temporary accommodation to such persons as interim relief. The court further asked the state to also ascertain the people who were affected by this haphazard and unwarranted demolition drive and then proceed with rehabilitation.

The bench also held BBMP responsible for rendering the laborers homeless, for acting without proper instructions and authorization. The bench held that the fundamental rights of the laborers had been violated. “Along with the Bengaluru Urban deputy commissioner, find out what arrangements can be made to rehabilitate them. Submit a detailed project report within a month,” the bench said, adjourning the case for further hearing on February 26.

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The post K’taka HC raps admin and police, asks govt to rehabilitate laborers touted as “Bangladeshis” appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Recently, much awaited migration data has been released by Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. While demographers are presumably busy analysing the data, certain preliminary observations are noteworthy, especially in the context of Assam where strong allegation of large-scale illegal migration from Bangladesh has assumed greater significance post NRC.

While data on foreign migrants do not distinguish between a legal migrant and an illegal migrant, but such data is important indicator of the volume and pattern of overall international migration in India and more specifically in the state of Assam.

Census of India releases two types of migration data – Migration by Birth place and Migration by place of last residence. When a person is enumerated in Census at a place which is different from her/his place of birth, she/he would be considered a migrant by place of birth. On the other hand, a person would be considered a migrant by place of last residence, if she/he had last resided at a place other than her/his place of enumeration. Migrant by place of last residence is generally considered to be a better way to understand international migration.

Influx from Bangladesh and Pakistan

Referring to the Census data on foreign migrants on the basis of their last place of residence outside India and duration of stay in India, one may at first observe that the total international migrants has increased by 7%, from 51.55 lakhs in 2001 to 54.91 lakhs in 2011. However, there is surprising change in the source country wise data for foreign migrants. If we compare foreign migrants who arrived in India during the two succeeding decades (1991-2001 and 2001-2011) then we find number of Bangladeshi migrants’ flow to India has declined from 2.79 lakhs during 1991-2001 to 1.72 lakhs during 2001-2011. Which means there is 50% decline in migrants’ flow to India from Bangladesh between the last two decades.

Accordingly, there is sharp decline (25%) in the total number of Bangladeshi migrants in India, from 30.84 lakhs in 2001 to 23.04 lakhs in 2011. The proportion of Bangladeshi migrants in 2001 was about 60% of total international migrants in India, which has sharply reduced to 42% in 2011.

Similarly, number of Pakistani migrants has also declined from 9.97 lakhs in 2001 to 7.07 lakhs, that is a decline of about 29%. Pakistani migrants are second largest international migrants after Bangladeshi migrants.

Influx from Nepal

While flow of migrants has considerably reduced from Bangladesh and Pakistan, there is huge increase (30%) of migrants from neighbouring country Nepal. Number of migrants from Nepal has made a quantum jump from 5.96 lakhs in 2001 to 7.78 lakhs in 2011. Nepal still hold its 3rd position in terms of number of international migrants in India.

African and American migrants

However, the biggest surprise is that India seems to have become a preferred destination of American and African migrants. Number of American migrants in India has increased from a meagre 0.26 lakhs in 2001 to 4.00 lakhs in 2011 that is an increase by 1452%. Similarly, African migrants has also increased by a whopping 491%, from 0.64 lakhs in 2001 to 3.81 lakhs in 2011. As a result, combined proportion of American and African migrants, in overall foreign migrants’ population in India, has increased seven folds, from 2% in 2001 to 14% in 2011.

The case of Assam

In Assam, amidst widespread allegation of large-scale migration from Bangladesh, the census data on foreign migrants assumes special significance. The 2011 census data on foreign migrants reflects that out of 54.91 lakh foreign migrants in India, only 1.10 lakh foreign migrants are being censused in Assam, the largest number of foreign migrants being enumerated in West Bengal (20.05 lakhs) followed by Bihar (3.98 lakhs), Uttar Pradesh (3.55 lakhs) and Maharashtra (3.24 lakhs). In fact, as per 2011 Census reports, there are 12 states in India where number of foreign migrants is higher than Assam.

Again, out of the total 11.12 lakh foreign migrants who arrived in India during the decade 2001-2011, the major destination is West Bengal (1.83 lakhs). Only 0.11 lac foreign migrants came to Assam during the same decade (2001-2011). Also, there are 17 states, other than West Bengal, which saw arrival of higher number of foreign migrants than Assam during the decade 2001-2011 like Maharashtra (1.83 lakhs), Bihar (1.20 lakhs), Kerala (1.03 lakhs) etc.

In the context of Assam, again, the biggest concern is about Bangladeshi migrants who came to Assam during the decade 2001-2011. The Census data of 2011 reveals that out of a total of 1.72 lakh Bangladeshi migrants who arrived in India during 2001-2011, only 1,916 migrants from Bangladesh were enumerated in Assam. The major destination for Bangladeshi migrants still continued to be West Bengal. About 1.51 lakh Bangladeshi migrants, which constitutes 88% of the total migrants from Bangladesh, arrived in West Bengal during 2001-2011. It is worthwhile to mention here that successive census since 1971 shows that the number of Bangladeshi migrants who arrived in Assam during 1971-2001 is only 31,151. Another interesting revelation from the 2011 census data is that American migrants (2,618) who came to Assam during the decade 2001-2011 is about 37% higher than the Bangladeshi migrants who arrived in this state during the same period. Bangladeshi migrants constitute only 16.6% of the total international migrants (11,508) who came to Assam during the period 2001-2011.

If Census data is to be believed, then there is no indication of large scale migration in Assam, illegal or otherwise, from foreign countries, especially from Bangladesh, after 1971, and more particularly during the last census decade (2001-2011). Question is how long the allegation of large-scale migration from Bangladesh will continue in Assam.

On the other hand, there are stronger reasons to justify and believe that demographic change in Assam is predominantly due to very high socio-economic inequalities in areas of female literacy, fertility behavior of women (TFR), multi-dimensional poverty, adolescent marriage, spatial distribution of population (rural-urban). Unless such inequalities are addressed, through socio-economic development, the unequal population growth pattern and, therefore, the demographic change would continue unabated.

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The hunt for “Bangladeshi nationals” has now begun in Maharashtra. Karnataka already sent 59 undocumented immigrants to West Bengal to be deported by Border Security Force to Bangladesh. Reports also came in from cities like Agra, Delhi, Mathura that illegal immigrants have been booked.

On December 17 it was reported that the Anti-Terrorist Cell (ATC) of Boisar in Palghar district arrested 12 Bangladeshi nationals, which includes 9 women, on a tip-off received by them. The ATC officials said that those arrested did not have any valid documents to prove their nationality.

One of the officials told Sabrang India that they acted upon information received and they found out that these people did not have any documents. When asked if they have a list of documents that can be considered as valid, he brushed off ID documents like Aadhaar Card and PAN card and said that these documents don’t prove anything. He further said that sometimes people make passport also on fake documents so we do not consider having passport as an absolute proof. He further said that documents like domicile of father or mother is a stronger proof.

When asked if such operations of nabbing illegal immigrants have bolstered due to the new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) he responded that such operations are a regular exercise and acted upon whenever information is received and they have been making such arrests since many years now and it has nothing to do with CAA.

When questioned about how did the police determine that they were Bangladeshi nationals and not just some poor migrants from West Bengal without documents he said, “Their phones had contacts saved which were numbers of Bangladeshi people. They are their relatives they are constantly in touch with.” He indicated that the arrested people all spoke Bangla and belonged to the Muslim Community. But, then can’t Bengali Muslim’s be Indian? Also is it that uncommon or even illegal to have relatives across the border?

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What to do with ‘illegal immigrants’ after they serve their sentence?

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Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said that Bangladesh has asked India to provide it with the list of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, living in India. The Minister assured India that his country will allow them to return as they have the right to enter into their own country. He also hoped that India would follow the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for sending illegal migrants back.

The Minister even confirmed that the relations between the two countries are normal and “very sweet” and that the same will not be affected.

He also said that some Indian nationals enter Bangladesh illegally due to economic reasons and said that, “if anybody other than our citizens enters Bangladesh, we will send them back”. He also stated that India has assured Bangladesh that the NRC process is an internal affair and will not affect Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Foreign Minister who was scheduled to visit India cancelled his visit citing reason that his visit clashed with “Vijay Diwas” or Victory Day in India, i.e. December 16. His visit was, however scheduled for December 12 to continue on until December 14. It was later claimed that the visit was cancelled as his junior minister and foreign secretary were both out of the country. He had called Amit Shah’s comments on persecution of minorities in Bangladesh as “untrue” and later said that Amit Shah’s comments were made in reference to when the country was under military rule.

The relations with Bangladesh have been blowing hot and cold. While Bangladesh has raised its concerns before the Indian government, Centre has seemingly managed to convince Dhaka that their relationship will not go sour due to NRC process, which is a process set to determine who are the citizens of India, an exercise similar to the one that took place in Assam, which has excluded over 19 lakh people over speculations that they may not be Indian citizens, leaving their fate to decision of the malfunctioning Foreigners Tribunals.

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There is no denying that the problem of illegalimmigration from Bangladesh is quite real. Although one cannot view this in the background of the NRC (National Register of Citizens) and Foreigners Tribunals, since that is, from its inception a questionable and even arbitrary exercise and has at its base a historically and politically driven document, the Assam Accord. The question in Assam has been deemed by stake-holders there to be state-specific arising out of the tumultuous and even violent years of the 1970s and 1980s. End result however has been a callous and crude bureau-political exercise that led to a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions.

In “preparation for a nation wide NRC”, many states in India have taken up the task of constructing detention centres within their jurisdictions and the police have started cracking down on suspected illegal immigrants, never mind the fact that the exercise in itself may be not quite lawful or statute-driven. This process of trying to identify illegal immigrants is more like a game of darts, sometimes they hit, sometimes they miss. Not knowing how to differentiate a Bengali speaking Indian from a Bengali speaking Bangladeshi immigrant, is the premise of this game.

Recently, the police in RT Nagar of Bengaluru, Karnataka arrested a 37 year old woman from Bangladesh for overstaying. The woman who had come to India on a student visa in 2003, later on got married and has a child. She even procured a PAN Card, Aadhar Card, Voter’s ID and she applied for a passport, when it came to light that she had overstayed and was thus labelled an illegal immigrant and arrested under the Foreigners Act.If ultimately this becomes a legitimate case of illegal immigration, thendue tothe woman’s ignorance of the law her family will have to pay a heavy price.

Not far back, Sabrang India reported that Bengali speaking workers were facing a likely and informal ban in housing complexes in Bengaluru wherein it was also highlighted how many low income Bengali speaking Indians as well illegal immigrants live in the outskirts of Bengaluru and work as rag pickers and how they are exploited. It is now being reported that the many rag pickers living in these outskirts, who were apparently hailing from Assam and West Bengal have fled apprehending detention or arrests, adversely affecting the dry waste processing in the city.

There are reports coming from other states were police are nabbing illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in the cities of Mathura or Delhi or Agra or Bengaluru itself.

But there is another side of this coin where Bengali speaking population in Bengaluru is accusing the state of targeting them without reason. In a recent incident, Kaustav Bhattacharya, a resident of Electronic City said he was taken to the local police station for questioning simply because his address on his driving license was of West Bengal.

While it is too early to determine how legitimate will such impending detentions be, one can only hope that innocent and rightful citizens do not meet the same fate as the citizenry in Assam.

Related:
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