- The Supreme Court reprimanded the Assam government’s efforts to deal with the illegal immigration crisis as figures showed that in the past decade, out of 52,000 persons declared foreigners by Tribunals under Foreigners Act, only 166 could be deported. Around 938 are being held in six detention centres in the state.
- Illegal migrants are Doubtful voters disenfranchised by the government for alleged lack of proper citizenship documents.Doubtful voters are tried by special tribunals under the Foreigners’ Act and if they fail to defend their citizenship claim they are marked as declared foreigners and sent to detention camps for deportation.
- The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register which contains the name of all citizens of India residing in Assam. It was prepared in 1951.The process of NRC update in Assam has been taken up as per a Supreme Court order in 2013. The update is being carried out under the Citizenship Act, 1955.
- The Citizenship Act of 1955 was amended after the Assam Accord for all Indian-origin people who came from Bangladesh before January 1, 1966 to be deemed as citizens. Those who came between January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971 were eligible for citizenship after registering and living in the State for 10 years while those entering after March 25, 1971, were to be deported.
