Assam: 28 ‘Declared Foreigners’ Bengali Muslims Rounded Up, Sent to Transit Camp by Police

Guwahati: The Assam police on Tuesday said that police in Western Assam’s Barpeta district on Monday sent 28 people declared non-citizens by the Foreigners’ Tribunals (FTs) to a ‘transit camp’ at Matia in the Goalpara district.

The 28 people — 19 men and nine women — were summoned from various parts of the district to the office of Barpeta's Superintendent of Police (SP) before being taken into a bus and sent to the detention centre. All the people declared foreigners belong to the Bengali Muslim community.

Security sources said that the individuals, who had been living in various police jurisdictions across the district, were transferred following a declaration by the Foreigners' Tribunal in Barpeta, which classified them as non-citizens.

The transfer process, which took place under heavy security, was carried out by the Barpeta Police in accordance with legal protocols, security sources said.

Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime) Bidyut Bikash Bora said, “We are carrying out the orders of the Foreigners’ Tribunal. The transfer process was conducted smoothly, adhering to all legal protocols.”

However, detention sparked anger outside the Barpeta Superintendent of Police's office, where family members and local residents gathered in protest. The tension prevailed as the “declared” foreigners were being transported, with the crowd voicing their anger.

Family members of those sent to the transit camp called on the state and central governments to expedite the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process. “We also want an illegal immigrants-free nation. For this, the governments should expedite the NRC process so that the innocents are freed as soon as possible,” said a family member of one of the detainees.

The local residents known to those sent to the transit camp said that one each from 28 families from different areas in the district were called to the police stations for some signatures to the SP office where they were detained and sent to the camp.

It is significant that till January 2023, over 1,000 “declared” foreigners were in detention camps across six jails in Assam, including Kokrajhar, Goalpara, Tezpur, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, and Silchar. Most of these detainees have since been released on conditional bail following orders from the Gauhati High Court and the Supreme Court.

The Matia transit camp, constructed at a cost of ₹64 crore, was initially labelled a detention centre but later renamed a “transit camp” for a more humane approach. The first batch of 64 declared foreign nationals, all from Goalpara, were shifted to the camp in January 2023.