Twenty-two inmate children declared 'foreigners' in Assam

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• Jul 20, 2021 | moderator

CM Himanta Biswa Sarma in the State Assembly said twenty-two inmate children, including their nine mothers, have been put up at three detention centers in Assam. He also added that the nine 'convicted women foreigners' with their 22 children are put up in three detention centers in Kokrajhar, Silchar, and Tezpur. Of the twenty-two children, twenty are below 14 years of age, while two are above 14 years. 

 CM Sarma also declared that the six detention centers of the state placed in Goalpara, Kokrajhar, Jorhat, Silchar, Dibrugarh, and Tezpur have 181 detenues. From the 181 detenues, 61 are "declared foreign nationals," while the remaining 120 were convicted by the court and are awaiting deportation after their terms of the sentence got over. Another 481 have been released based on the apex court's separate orders and the Gauhati High Court in April 2020.

Sarma also informed that 29 people have died in the detention centers due to various diseases. However, the cases of suspected foreigners are being dealt with under the Foreigners' Tribunal (FT), a quasi-judicial institute. The Foreigners' Tribunal has disposed of 2,98,471 cases till April 30 this year. Of them, 1,39,900 were declared as foreigners, while 321 were repatriated.