The Assam Government on Thursday deported ten Bangladeshi nationals including two minors to Bangladesh at Kalibari ghat check post along the Indo-Bangladesh border in Karimganj district even as the Government hopes to deport another 50 Bangladeshi nationals soon, who have been languishing their terms in a jail in Assam’s Cachar district.
The ten people including one woman and two minors had been languishing their terms in the Silchar jail in Assam’s Barak Valley for last several years. They had been arrested by the police and security personnel for entering Indian territory without any valid legal documents.
“These ten people were arrested in different times from different places since 2009. They were found without any valid documents to prove their citizenship and they had later admitted to have crossed over to this side of the border,” said Cachar Superintendent of Police, Rajveer Singh on Thursday.
“The people have been sent to judicial custody and we took up the matter with Bangladesh diplomatic level. The Bangladesh Government responded positively to out appeal for deportation and after ascertaining their identity in Bangladesh, the Government of neighbouring country agreed to take them back,” said the SP.
All the ten people including the two children were taken from SIlchar jail to Karimganj district today morning and handed over to the Bangladesh authorities at Kalibari ghat check post after crossing Kushiara river by ferry.
India authorities said that most of these ten people hails from Sylhet district in Bangladesh.
A senior district administration official at Cachar said that while ten Bangladeshi infiltrators have been pushed back today, there are about 50 more Bangladeshi citizens in Silchar jail alone waiting for their deportation.
“The Indian authorities have handed over a list of 50 Bangladeshi citizens languishing in Indian jails in a recently held border meeting between the two countries. “While response came for the ten, we are still waiting for a positive response from Bangladesh government to take back another 50 people,” he said.
It may be mentioned here that former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had published a ‘white paper’ in 2012 where the Government had mentioned that the state government had failed to deport over 27,000 illegal foreigners, who had been living in the state illegally. Releasing the white paper, Gogoi had stated that since 1985, a total of 4,52,667 cases of suspected foreigners have been registered with Foreigners Tribunals in the State, of which 1,84,275 cases have been disposed and 61,774 were declared as foreigners.
However, of the total declared foreigners 32,537 cannot be deported since they came between 1966-71 (people who entered during this period cannot be deported) and out of the remaining 29,237 declared foreigners’, only 2442 have been deported till 2012.