India is facing a problem of accommodating thousands of foreign national detainees even as deporting them to their respective countries of origin remains a cumbersome process. Over 70,000 foreign nationals from as many as 58 countries are under detention for illegally overstaying in India after the expiry of their visa with Bangladeshis, Africans, Americans, Pakistanis and Afghans forming the chunk of them.
Against this backdrop, the Centre has asked States and Union Territories (UTs) to hire more suitable accommodation and build more detention centres for such foreign nationals.
While Uttar Pradesh and Haryana do not have detention centres, Tripura has converted old age homes into detention centres.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has told the State Governments that they can incur the expenditures and claim reimbursement from the ministry. The Centre has asked the States to restrict the movement of foreign nationals awaiting deportation. The Government’s concern stems from the millions of Bangladeshi nationals who have become untraceable in the past several years.
Detention centres are managed by State Governments and house foreigners who overstay or don’t have valid travel documents or illegally cross over into India. Officials said foreign nationals of more than 58 countries have been found violating visa norms and overstaying in many parts of the country.
At a high-level meeting chaired by the Special Secretary (Border Management) of MHA, States and Union Territories have expressed concern over increasing number of illegal foreign nationals who overstay on their visa. At the meeting, officials of Haryana Government said that the state does not have a detention centre and foreign nationals are sent to detention centre in Delhi while the officials of Uttar Pradesh said they had earlier proposed to set up a centre at Gautam Budh Nagar but the idea was dropped. Now it has planned to set up a centre at Ghaziabad.
Inspector General of Police of Tamil Nadu said they have set up a temporary centre while Gujarat said a temporary centre at Bhuj has been set. Officials of Chandigarh pointed out about a centre for the foreign immigrants having been set up in Amritsar. The Inspector General (Prison) of Assam informed the Ministry that the State has six detention centres where over 1,000 illegal foreign nationals are lodged. “They have already completed their sentence and not willing to return their countries. The majority of them are from Bangladesh who have been kept in detention centre for the last six years. There is a need of more such centres with better facilities,” officials said. They stated that the issue was raised with Bangladesh officials through the Ministry of External Affairs but tedious deportation process takes too much time.
The Joint Director of Bureau of Immigration said most of the detainees are notorious in nature and do not want to return. Such detainees can be deported only after the concerned country completes the nationality verification and issues related documents.
As per statement made by Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju in the Rajya Sabha last year, around 2 crore illegal Bangladeshi migrants have settled in India which marks an increase of 67 per cent from the figures laid down in Parliament by the UPA regime in 2004 but later withdrawn.