Assam: Assam to get a ‘separate’ detention centre for immigrants

21 July 2018:

Even as the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is being updated in Assam, the state is all poised to get a separate detention centre for the illegal immigrants.

Assam’s Principal Secretary (Home and Political Department), LS Changsan, told INSIDENE that the Central government had sanctioned Rs.46 crore for the construction of a separate detention centre for the foreigners. It will be built in Goalpara district.

Under the existing arrangement, the immigrants are kept in separate cells in jails. The proposed centre in Goalpara will be independent where only the immigrants will be kept. Once built, it can house up to 3,000 inmates.

At present, there are some 1,000 immigrants languishing in six detention centres in the jails.

“We gave a proposal to the Union government for the creation of a separate detention centre and we have got a sanction of Rs.46 crore. Once built, the immigrants, lodged in the detention centres in jails, may be shifted to it,” she said.

She also said that people, whose names would not figure in the NRC, would get the time of one month to file claims and objections.

“Once the NRC final list is out, the Centre will take a decision on the fate of the immigrants. It is not true that those names would not figure in the NRC will be straightway sent to the detention centres,” Changsan said.

She added: “The Centre is examining this issue as it is a Union subject. The government will certainly come up with a policy in due course”.