[ad_1]
About 4 million people living in the border state of Assam have been excluded from a draft list of citizens because Bengali-speaking Muslims fear being sent to detention centers or expelled.
put in place strict security while Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal told Indian media that those who find themselves stateless overnight should not worry.
Sonowal said that they would have a chance to prove their citizenship. none of the 4 million will be sent to a detention camp and "no one will be treated as a stranger". Sonowal told the Hindustan Times that "candidates will have ample opportunity to prove their eligibility".
Hundreds of thousands of people fled to India during the Bangladesh War of Independence against Pakistan in the early 1970s. Most of them settled in Assam, which has a border nearly 165 miles (270km) with Bangladesh.
The list aims to identify every resident who can demonstrate his roots in the state before March 1971. The mammoth three-year exercise to prove the identity of 33 million people across the hills, valleys and the plains of this green state began two years ago. He was supervised by the Supreme Court.
There have been longstanding social and community tensions in the state, with residents campaigning against illegal immigrants – a fight backed by the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 19659002] In 1983, dozens of people were killed by crowds armed with machetes who were trying to harbad Muslim immigrants.
Some residents claim that state demographics have been altered by illegal Muslim migrants. Many Muslim residents angrily reject the accusation of being illegal, saying that not only them, but their grandparents, were born in Assam and that they know of no other place.
The papers and antecedents of each resident have been verified. The first draft list was published on January 1, with names of 19 million. Since then, more claims have been verified and more names have been added to the register
However, the final register will only be complete when the 4 million people have appealed their exclusion from the list and will have chance to prove their claims to citizenship.
The Guardian reported in February that Assam was building a new detention center to treat "foreigners" who will be deported in the coming years.
Harsh Mander, human rights activist, member of the National Commission for Human Rights. Delhi, visited a detention center in January. He said that he was devastated to see separated families and people detained in "prisons" indefinitely, some of them for many years.
"There was a growing sense of fear of the future among those I met." My own apprehension is that if thousands of people considered "stateless" can be kept like that, that Will it Happen When Its Millions Will We See Concentration Camps? "Mander asked.
On Wednesday, the Federal Minister of the Interior, Rajnath Singh, said that he had ordered the government of Assam to take no action against those whose names are not on the register.In Parliament on Monday, Mr Singh told MPs that there would be no Evictions based on the register and stated that it was not necessary to create a "useless panic".
For its part, the Assam government announced millions on the list have to take to rectify the situation.But the fundamental problem for many, is that they have everything simply no documents dating back several decades.
"Many are poor, illiterate families who do not have relevant papers to prove how long they have lived in. Saying that they will have the chance to prove their citizenship is easy, but this is not so easy for them, "said social activist Prashant Bora of Guwahati, the capital of Assam.
Meanwhile, the neighboring states of Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland have strengthened their security with Assam for fear that panicked residents who are not on the list may cross them.
Source link
