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‘Special panels to detect, deport illegal immigrants’
Why in news?
- The Mizoram government has formed “special task force committees” — both at the district level and the sub-divisional level — to detect and deport illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.
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- Other Details:
(1) The committees have been formed in three districts of the State — Lunglei, Mamit and Lawngtlai — along the India-Bangladesh border, in accordance with a directive by the Centre.
(2) The Union Ministry of Home Affairs had in November 2009 directed the State government to deport immigrants who have illegally entered India from the neighbouring country.
(3) Mizoram shares 318-km-long border with Bangladesh.
(4) The State until now has no foreigners’ tribunal.
- About Foreigner’s Tribunal:
(1) The Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964 was issued by the Central Government under Section 3 of The Foreigners Act, 1946.
(2) It is applicable to the whole country. Major amendments in the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964 were undertaken in 2013.
(3) The last amendment was issued in May, 2019.
(4) All these orders are applicable to the whole country and are not specific to any state.
(5) Therefore, there is nothing new in this regard in the latest amendment of May 2019.
(6) Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) are quasi-judicial bodies meant to determine whether a person is or is not a foreigner under Foreigner’s Act, 1946.
(7) Each Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) is headed by a member who can be a retired judicial officer, bureaucrat or lawyer with minimum seven years of legal practice.
(8) Earlier, powers to constitute tribunals were vested only with Centre. Recently amended Foreigners (Tribunal) Order, 2019 has empowered district magistrates in all States & Union Territories to set up tribunals to decide whether a person staying illegally in India is a foreigner or not.
(9) FT was set up in Assam in 1964 through the Foreigners Tribunal Order 1964. The tribunals are mandated with identifying the legal status of suspected foreigners in Assam.
(10) At present, there are 100 FTs in Assam; of these 64 were set up in 2015, to expedite the exercise of determining illegal immigrants in the state through the NRC
Sources
The Hindu