Almost two million people in Assam, India are threatened with statelessness. The state government of northeastern India published a controversial civic register on Saturday, totaling 31.1 million people. However, 1.9 million inhabitants were not included in the so-called National Civil Register (NRC).
Prior to the publication of the register, the security measures in Assam were strengthened. Around 20,000 additional security forces were sent to the state, and in some places meetings were banned.
Most affected are Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh. They must be afraid of being lodged in reception centers, being stateless or being deported to Bangladesh. However, the poor and overpopulated neighboring state does not recognize these people as their own citizens.
The citizens' register in Assam was already decided last year and is considered a model for the whole country. In January, the Indian House of Commons passed a controversial law. It grants Indian citizenship to Hindus, Christians and Sikhs from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan if they have been living in India for at least six years. The approximately 170 million Muslims living in India are not granted this right.
Critics see in the civil register another attempt by the Hindu-nationalist ruling party BJP of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to strengthen the supremacy of Hindus in India and especially to marginalize the Muslim minority. Also in Assam governs the BJP.
Ten more warehouses planned
The people not on the list have to prove within four months that their families lived in India before the founding of the state of Bangladesh in 1971. But for many people in the highly illiterate region, this is a big challenge.
Anyone who is not admitted to the civil register even after exhausting all legal means can be declared a foreigner and, theoretically, taken to one of six internment camps. At present, 1135 people live in the camps, according to Assam's government. Ten more camps are to be built.
A provisional register of citizens had been published in July 2018. At that time, the names of around four million people had been omitted. "The region of Assam, famous for its tea exports, faces a humanitarian catastrophe," said Ulrich Delius, director of the Society for Threatened Peoples in Göttingen. "India should be made a Hindu state where there is no room for dissenters and minorities."