Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has declared a stringent new policy aimed at accelerating the deportation of individuals identified as illegal foreigners. The state government will now initiate the process of pushing such persons back into Bangladesh within just one week of them being declared a 'foreigner' by a Foreigners' Tribunal.
New Policy to Prevent Legal Delays
Sarma, speaking on Thursday, January 1, 2026, in Guwahati, stated that this decisive move is specifically designed to prevent the deportation process from being "prolonged" by appeals in the High Court or the Supreme Court. He explained that the moment a tribunal issues its declaration, the pushback action will commence.
"One new decision we have made is that once people are declared foreigners by Foreigners Tribunals, we will push them back within one week," the Chief Minister said. He believes this "non-compromising attitude" will provide the necessary momentum to address the long-standing issue.
Revival of the 1950 Act and Recent Numbers
The policy framework for this accelerated action comes from the revival of the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act of 1950. Sarma noted that the Supreme Court's upholding of this act has provided the legal foundation. He revealed that in the last three months alone, approximately 2,000 individuals have already been "pushed back" across the border into Bangladesh under this approach.
This "pushback" is an informal process of sending individuals across the international border, distinct from the formal, treaty-based deportation procedure which has seen little practical implementation. The state government has framed a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the 1950 Act, at times directing declared foreigners to leave the country within 24 hours.
Bypassing Treaties and Future Targets
A significant implication of this new system is that it bypasses the need for a formal deportation treaty between India and Bangladesh, which has been a major hurdle. "With this system, we can now expel from 10,000 to 50,000 foreigners, if we can identify them," Sarma asserted.
He contrasted the government's past focus on evictions with its future goal, stating, "In the last five years, if evictions were a hallmark of the government, in the next five years, the hallmark will be the number of expelled foreigners."
The Chief Minister also criticized the previous system where declared foreigners were held in designated jails, often receiving state facilities, only to remain within Assam after obtaining bail. The new policy, a joint decision of the Union and state governments, firmly establishes that once declared a foreigner, an individual "does not have the right to remain in India."
Foreigners' Tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies that determine the citizenship status of individuals in Assam, typically referred by border police or those marked as 'D-voters' (doubtful voters) in electoral rolls.
