India will allow no "illegal migrant" to stay, says the country’s Home Minister Amit Shah.
“I want to clearly say that not a single illegal migrant will be allowed to stay in the country by the Government of India. That is our commitment," news agency PTI quoted Shah as saying.
Shah, who is the chief of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, made the remarks while addressing chief ministers of eight states of northeastern India at a programme in Guwahati in Assam yesterday.
Speaking of Assam’s just-published National Register of Citizens (NRC), the senior BJP leader said the citizen list was completed in "time-bound manner".
"Various people have raised all kinds of questions on the National Register of Citizens (NRC)… It was completed in a time-bound manner," he said
On Sept 1, India released the final NRC, a list of genuine citizens in the state of Assam, excluding 1.9 million people amid fears they could be rendered stateless, who India said mostly were immigrated from neighboring Bangladesh.
Every person left out of the NRC can appeal to the Foreigners Tribunal, and the time limit to file the appeal has been extended from 60 to 120 days.
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 people are being held in Assam’s six detention centres for illegal immigrants that often draw flack from the rights activists.
Following the release of the NRC, Assam said the state would ask Bangladesh to take their people back as the final citizen list traced up to 1.5 million foreigners.
India to approach Bangladesh to take their people back
Assam’s Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told the media: “We will approach Bangladesh and ask them to take their people back, but during that time we will not allow them to vote and give them certain amenities.
“The government of Bangladesh is a friend to India and they are cooperating with us… They are frequently taking back their people when we have presented cases of illegal immigration. The number has not been high, but now we will have a process to identify them.”
“Just because people’s name don’t appear in the NRC doesn’t mean that they will be called foreigners and sent to Bangladesh” he said.
