India excludes nearly 2 million people from citizen list in one state
Nearly two million people have been excluded from a list of citizens in India's northeastern Assam state, raising fears they could be rendered stateless. The list, known as the National Register of Citizens (NRC), was published on Saturday after a years-long exercise aimed at identifying legal residents in the border state. A total of 31.1 million people were included in the final list, leaving out 1.9 million people, according to a statement from the Assam government.
The government said it carried out the mammoth exercise to detect and deport undocumented immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, but critics viewed the exercise as an attempt to deport millions of Muslims, who make up a third of the state's population. Resentment against immigrants has simmered for years in Assam, with residents accusing outsiders of taking their jobs and land. The mass influx of refugees into Assam has sparked violent anti-immigrant campaigns in the past. Only those who can demonstrate that they or their forebears were in India before 1971 could be included in the list.
Those excluded have 120 days to prove their citizenship at hundreds of regional quasi-judicial bodies known as foreigner's tribunals. Up to 200 more tribunals are expected to be set up on top of the existing 100. Human rights activists fear those excluded from the list may face possible jail time or deportation, and they may be deprived of their right to vote, among other civil rights.
The government has already announced its plan to build 10 more detention centres, adding to the already six detention centres for undocumented migrants. The Hindu nationalist-led government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi fully backs the citizenship project and promised to roll out a similar plan nationwide.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/08/nrc-list-19-million-excluded-india-citizens-list-190831044040215.html
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(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)