Indo-Bangla repatriation treaty
Guwahati: A delegation of Axom Jatiya Gana Sangram Parishad (AJGSP) has submitted a memorandum to the Governor of Assam , P B Acharya highlighting the urgent need for an Indo-Bangladesh Repatriation Treaty for effective deportation of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from Assam and seek his intervention in this regard.
Dr Aroop Jyoti Kalita, chief convenor of the AJGSP informed that the governor was apprised that even after almost 30 years of signing of the historic Assam Accord, the issue of illegal immigration still remains unresolved.
The White Paper on Foreigners’ Issue released by the Home & Political Department of Government of Assam on 20th October,2012 clearly shows the rate of push back / deportation against the number of persons declared as foreigners.
However this declaration by both IM(DT) Tribunals & Foreigners Tribunals is a mere 2442 till July,2012 against a total of 55,184 declared as foreigners which is a mere 4.4%.
The same White Paper in Section 2.5 DEPORTATION/ PUSH BACK clearly mentions the following in Section 2.5.4. In the absence of a proper laid down procedure for deportation of illegal migrants between the Government of India and the Government of Bangladesh, it has become difficult to carry out deportations.
As such, deportation of foreigners is mainly carried out through the ‘push back’ method.
“However till date, the Government of India is yet to formally take up this issue with Government of Bangladesh and also we have not seen concrete steps being taken up by Government of Assam to effectively take up the matter with the Government of India regarding the issue of effective deportation of illegal immigrants.
The AJGSP memorandum said , “Taking into account the developments in most advanced countries and their formulation of Immigration policies and the Repatriation Treaties, with the intervention of the United Nations, the Union of India negotiates with the state of Bangladesh to enter into a Repatriation Treaty for repatriation of the illegal immigrants who are detected as immigrants from their Bangladesh roots, if need be by taking resort to universally accepted scientific/medical methodology of DNA Tests.”
The AJGSP had earlier submitted a memorandum to the Speaker of Assam Legislative Assembly.
The memorandum urged him to convene a Special Session of the Assam Legislative Assembly to discuss this matter and adopt a resolution urging the Government of India to initiate measures to sign a Repatriation Treaty with Government of Bangladesh at the earliest.