13 Bangladeshi nationals deported to their country, Centre tells Supreme Court

The Centre informed the Supreme Court on Friday (March 21, 2025) that 13 Bangladeshi nationals have been deported to their country while the verification process for the remaining illegal immigrants in detention centres in Assam is underway.

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Appearing before a Bench of Justices A.S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre and the Assam government, said the Bangladesh High Commission was involved in the process as it had to be first confirmed that the immigrants were Bangladeshi nationals.

Mr. Mehta said the Nationality Status Verification Format of the detainees was sent to the Ministry of External Affairs on February 14. Deportation would be possible only if Bangladesh agreed that the detainees were its citizens.

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“Verification process is going on, we cannot allow the situation to flare up,” Mr. Mehta submitted.

He said illegal immigrants broadly fell into two categories, those whose nationality was known and others who were non-Indians but of unknown nationality.

The court allowed time till the end of April for the Centre to deal with the verification of the nationality of detainees who belonged to the second category.

The court directed the State of Assam to file an affidavit, by next hearing, on progress made in the submission of the Nationality Status Verification Format of the detainees and further deportations, if any. The court scheduled the case for hearing on May 6.

On February 4, the top court had pulled up the Assam government for indefinitely detaining people declared as foreigners in detention camps, asking the State whether it was waiting for an auspicious time to deport them.

The court had expressed surprise at the State’s affidavit that it was not sending nationality verification forms to the Ministry of External Affairs as the addresses of the detainees in their native country were not known. The Bench had noted that once the detainees were identified as foreigners they ought to be deported immediately.