'Detection, detention, deportation' of illegal immigrants an 'ongoing process', govt informs Parliament

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The government on September 21 informed Parliament that the "detection, detention and deportation" of illegal immigrants is an 'ongoing process' and that they enter the country in a "clandestine and surreptitious manner."

Minister of State (Home) Nityanand Rai was responding in Rajya Sabha to a question asked by Banda Prakash, a Member of Parliament (MP) from Telangana.

"Illegal immigrants enter into the country without valid travel documents in a clandestine and surreptitious manner. Detection, detention and deportation of such illegally staying foreign nationals is an ongoing process," Rai said.

The government did not, however, offer any specific answer to Prakash's other questions, including one on whether the ministry has sought cooperation from the central government to assist in identification of illegal immigrants.

In March, on a specific question regarding data on illegal immigrants in the national capital, Rai had said that "data regarding number of such migrants living in the country, including Delhi, is not centrally maintained."

The answer comes against the backdrop of a debate regarding the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the subsequent protests against the government's Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The NRC is an exercise to verify citizenship in India.

An Assam-specific NRC was rejected by the state government alleging anomalies after its final list was published last year. The final NRC was published on August 31, 2019, by excluding 19.06 lakh people. A total of 3.11 crore names were included out of 3.30 crore applicants.

The Assam government had already rejected the much-publicised NRC as it claimed that many ineligible persons managed to include their names while genuine Indian citizens were left out from the database.