Inhuman conditions for inmates inside, endless wait for families outside: Matia Detention camp turns into a living hell

Sixty-five-year-old Hakim Uddin, a resident of the Keotkuchi village in the Barpeta district of Assam is a shattered man. It has been over two months since his wife, 51-year-old Azabha Khatun, was put into the Matia Detention Camp in the Goalpara district of Assam. Despite relentless efforts, Uddin is still clueless how to go about the complex and expensive legal process to bring her out.

The Matia Detention Camp is the country’s largest detention centre that was built to detain illegal immigrants.

“We were both happily married with two children and living a contented life. All of a sudden we received a notice which said that my wife has been declared a foreigner, and soon after she was put in the detention camp,” said Uddin.

“We were making a meagre income and never had any big savings. I am totally devastated,” said Uddin.

Gulzar Ali, who is 40 years old and lives in the same village, is in a situation not too different from that of Uddin. Ali’s 65-year-old father Kitab Ali has been declared a foreigner and put in the Matia Detention camp.

Like Hakim Uddin, Ali is also a daily-wage labourer. With his age catching up, he had stopped doing hard labour since the past few years, and went to work only occasionally.

Both are highly tensed after a news regarding a hunger strike by the inmates at the camp broke out which attracted attention of human rights activists.

In 2021, the Assam government had closed down six detention camps set up to house foreigners across six districts of the state, and had set up only one such camp at Matia, in the Goalpara district in lower Assam. The government had changed the nomenclature of the facility to ‘Transit Camp’ from Detection Centre, in a bid to add what the government called a “human touch”.

However, the ‘human touch’ never took off and in the first week of September this year the inmates at the ‘Transit Camp’ went on a hunger strike demanding better facilities and food there.

The 103 inmates, who are allegedly from Myanmar, started a hunger strike from September 9, and on September 12, 10 of them had to be hospitalised after their health condition deteriorated, but soon recovered after treatment at the hospital.

Though the Assam government tried a face-saving act and immediately Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma rushed his senior officials to the camp to take stock of the situation and the crisis was resolved, the Supreme Court cracked down hard on the Assam government weeks later.

On October 4, the Supreme Court delivered a hard hitting directive.

It stated, “Even basic amenities are lacking, as can be seen from the detailed report submitted by the team constituted by the Assam State Legal Service Authority (ASLSA). We direct the secretary in charge of the concerned department of the State of Assam to immediately make a visit to the Detention Camp, hold a meeting with all the concerned Authorities and ensure that all facilities are in place in the Detention Camp within a maximum period of one month from today. Even the Secretary of the ASLSA shall also be invited to attend the meeting. A comprehensive affidavit shall be filed by the Secretary of the concerned department of the State of Assam within a period of one month from today, which shall be considered on 9th December, 2024.”

This has, however, changed little for the victims and their families.

The families had already been anxious after getting to know about the the horrible stories about the detention camps from the former inmates who got released. The latest developments are giving them sleepless nights.

“My wife is a simple woman, and we are aware how unsafe women are in prisons, and this is a detention centre about which very few of us have any idea. We have no clue when, if at all, this phase of uncertainty will end for us all,” Hakim Uddin added.

Hunger strikes in the past

This is, however, not the first time that the inmates had to sit on such a fast demanding better facilities.

“There have been many such protests at the detention centres in the past as well but most of the times such protests never came to the attention of people from the outside world,” said Habibul Bepari, who is associated with the Citizens for Justice and Peace, a human rights organisation, which is working closely on the issue of foreigners in Assam and justice for them.

“I first came to know about such hunger strikes from Dipak Dey, a resident of Tripura, who was detained as a foreigner for five years before being released with our intervention, and when we spoke to him, he mentioned such protests by the inmates for better facilities and liveable conditions,” added Bepari.

Dey had come to Guwahati, the largest city in the North East, looking for work. He arrived in Guwahati as a 45-year-old in 2005, and found work as a labourer at the Guwahati Railway station.

Eleven years later, he received the biggest shock of his life when he was he sent to the Goalpara camp, which remained his house for the next five years, till he was finally released in 2021.

“Dey was declared a foreigner in an ex parte judgment by a foreigners tribunal. After his release, Dey told us that he didn’t receive any notice, and his case was based on suspicion and complaint by someone,” added Bepari, who had worked on Dey’s case closely.

Foreigners Tribunals are a quasi-judicial bodies formed through the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order of 1964 under Section 3 of the Foreigners' Act of 1946.

Drag of an uncertain battle

The issue of foreigners is a very complex one, revolving over the question of identity, and Assam saw a six-year-long agitation demanding detection and deportation of illegal immigrants which ended in the year 1985 with the Assam Accord. The issue is an emotive one in the state as well, as there is a fear that the local language and culture will gradually erode due to large scale influx of illegal immigrants to the state.

In 1997, the Election Commission of India even came up with the list of ‘D’, or doubtful voters, who can’t vote as they could be foreigners.

“The D voters can’t vote and they wait for a notice from the government. Often some have to wait for 24-25 years for such a notice for them to appeal before the authorities,” said Bepari.

Explaining the process, Bepari said that the D voters are sent notices from the Foreigners Tribunals.

“The tribunals give the order to the Government regarding the declared foreigners, and based on the orders, those who are ordered to be sent to the Detention Camp, are picked up by the police,” added Bepari.

Even as individuals perceived as non-citizens face an uncertain and dire future, scholars and practitioners within the legal field have described the situation as a profound humanitarian crisis with no apparent resolution in sight.

“India does not have a bilateral agreement with Bangladesh, and Bangladesh does not recognise these individuals as its own citizens. The only viable path forward requires diplomatic negotiations between both governments, but neither the Union government nor the Assam government, has taken adequate steps in this direction," stated Abantee Dutta, representing Studio Nilima, an Assam-based organization focusing on facilitating effective legal services in carceral institutions through direct intervention and research.

Dutta welcomed a recent directive from the Supreme Court but emphasized that the discourse around deportation and perceived non-citizens has largely been reduced to a political talking point, revived only during election cycles. “Detaining individuals in camps is not a sustainable solution; they cannot be confined indefinitely. Moreover, it is critical to recognise that their status is not similar to individuals convicted of crimes," Dutta said.

Addressing the distinct challenges faced by Rohingya individuals from Myanmar, Dutta highlighted the unique context of their situation. “Although India does not have a bilateral agreement with Myanmar, Rohingya refugees possess UNHCR cards, which entitle them to reside in camps designated by the United Nations,” Dutta explained.

Sharing an example, Dutta recounted encountering a Rohingya family in an Assam jail some years ago. The family, holding UNHCR cards, expressed deep anguish at being detained alongside individuals convicted of crimes. “Through our intervention, the family was eventually transferred to a UN-designated camp. However, countless others remain in similar circumstances without resolution,” Dutta added.

No sign of end

In August this year during the monsoon session of the Assam assembly, in response to a question from Congress MLA Abdul Satin Khandakar, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who also holds the home portfolio, said that in Assam a total of 1,59,353 persons have been declared foreigners by the Foreigners Tribunal till December 31 last year.

“As of December 31 2023, a total of 2,27,186 cases have been disposed of and 96,149 cases are pending before the Foreigners Tribunals,” said the Assam chief minister.

In response to a query on the inmates in the Matia Transit camp, the chief minister said that as of July 31, 2024, a total of 210 inmates are being kept at the Matia Transit camp.

“As per the Hon’ble Supreme Court order dated 13/04/2020, 522 inmates who have completed two years have been released,” added the chief minister.

Given its complexities, it is amply clear till both the Union government and the state government do not look at the issue of foreigners in a pragmatic way, the issue will drag on as an election issue in every polling cycle, with people like Azabha Khatun and Gulzar Ali surviving as mere pawns.