GUWAHATI, April 16 - As many as 310 detected Bangladeshi nationals, currently lodged in the six detention centres of Assam, have expressed ignorance about their places of origin in the neighbouring country despite admitting their foreign (Bangladeshi) nationality.
The development has now posed a serious roadblock in the deportation process, which is already running at a very slow pace. In fact, in the last 15 months, only one Bangladeshi could be deported to Bangladesh from Assam.
With no information about their places of origin in Bangladesh, the governments both in Dispur and New Delhi had reportedly expressed concern about the development, as it is only after securing the addresses of the detenus that the process of verification with the neighbouring country ideally gets started through diplomatic channels.
Records say that of the 489 detenus currently lodged in the detention camps, law enforcers could only gather information about the addresses of only 179 detected foreigners, which also include some Myanmarese nationals caught in Assam.
Of these 489 detenus, 143 are convicted under various Sections of Foreigners� Act, Passport Act and other sections of the Indian Penal Code.
�As there are also 147 Hindu detenus, it would be interesting to see how the Centre responds to it, especially after their new stand on the persecuted migrants from the neighbouring country,� sources said. There are also 19 children lodged in the six detention camps.
�At the moment, we do not know what to do with these foreigners who do not have any idea about their home back in Bangladesh. Neither the Centre nor the State government has any clear-cut policy on such detenus, who expressed their ignorance about their native places in Bangladesh. There are detenus who entered India at a very tender age along with their family members. But now that their parents have expired, they have no clue whatsoever about their native places,� official sources told this reporter.
Sources further stated that a number of nationality verification letters sent to Bangladeshi authorities are still awaited. There are also instances when the Bangaldesh government had refused to accept such detenus.
The detention centres are located at Goalpara, Kokrajhar, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Tezpur. The Goalpara detention centre has the highest inmate with 197 detenus followed by Kokrajhar with 105.
