Dhaka refused to take back 29000 infiltrators: Tarun Gogoi
Dhaka refused to take back 29000 infiltrators: Tarun Gogoi - The Times of India
TNN | Oct 21, 2012, 04.13AM IST
GUWAHATI: On a day when Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde visited the India-Bangladesh border in Dhubri district to review border security measures against illegal influx, chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday said Bangladesh has refused to take back over 29,000 persons declared as illegal migrants by foreigners' tribunals since 1985.
Shinde, accompanied by home secretary RK Singh, visited all the riverine outposts of BSF at Sishumara in Dhubri district. The state has a riverine border of 43.23 km with Bangladesh, which cannot be fenced and is open to influx.
Gogoi said, "Bangladesh does not recognize the verdicts given by India's foreigners' tribunals. Bangladesh wants an international neutral body to verify the citizenship of these persons and only if it finds them to be Bangladesh citizens, the country is ready to take them back." Gogoi stressed on having a treaty between the two countries on the deportation issue.
"We have a very poor record of deportation of the illegal migrants from Bangladesh," added Gogoi. Giving the statistics in white paper on foreigners' issue that he released here on Saturday, Gogoi said, since 1985, 4,52,667 cases were referred to foreigners' tribunals and the now defunct IM(DT) tribunals.
"From 1985 till date, 1,85,275 cases were disposed of and among these 29,237 were declared illegal migrants. But in all these years, we have been able to deport just 2442 of them. Our deportation record is very poor," said Gogoi.
The declared foreigners are handed over to BSF for deportation. The BSF then refers them to Border Guards Bangladesh,
which refers them further to Bangladesh local police. It is only after Bangladesh police verifies the antecedents of the illegal migrant waiting deportation from India, the actual deportation takes place. But the whole process is a lengthy one.
"If Bangladesh refuses to take these people, they become stateless," Gogoi's white paper stated.