Assam Government released White Paper on Illegal Migration

State Government of Assam on 20 October 2012 released a White Paper on illegal migration from international borders with the help of the Home and Political Department. The government also cleared that as projected by the political parties functional in the state, undocumented migration from international borders in Assam was not a critical issue. The Government claimed unemployment, lack of education and healthcare facilities to be a bigger issue that the state was facing.

The White Paper Released by the Home and Political Department stated that as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), All-Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and other organisations were trying to promote unregistered migration to be the critical issue but it was not a critical issue. In fact, as per this release the migration from Cross border was a serious concern during and before 1971 at the time it was erstwhile East Pakistan. The Issue of migration dropped to a great scale from 1991.    

The State Government declared the White Paper as a historical release by the state and claimed that the population rise witnessed by the state in between 1911 to 1991 the proportional growth rate of the sate was much higher than the average growth at all-India level.

The White Paper claims a downfall in the number of illegal infiltration from cross-border to Assam due to the strict initiatives taken by the Government in terms of checking and controlling the infiltration. Quick deportation of illegal migrants was also an initiative by the State Government, but remains a big challenge as the cross border arrangements with the Bangladesh makes physical deportation of declared foreign nationals to the country a difficult task.

Foreigners Tribunals and IMDT Tribunals Record:
In between 2001 to July 2012
•    Number of referred cases: 140,758
•    Disposed of: 53452

In between 1985 to 2000
•    Number of referred cases 80,252
•    Disposed of: 43,631

Of 6590 people declared to be foreigners were found Indians and in 37383 cases opinion making was not done.

The decadal Hindu-Muslim percentage ratio in Assam, as per the white paper:
•    1951-72.01-24.68
•    1961-71.75-25.26
•    1971-72.51-24.56
•    1991-67.13-28.43
•    2001-64.89-30.92

The White Paper released also claims that the work of fencing the boundary for controlling the cross border migration was 97 percent complete in two different phases phase I and II. Assam shares a 224.69 kilometer long border with Bangladesh out of which 218.17 kilometer area was completely fenced.