Home Ministry: Raje's 'transit camp' allegations are false

Thu, May 22 02:33 AM

Continuing its nitpicking with Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, the Centre on Wednesday reiterated that it had not issued any directions to the state Government to form detention centres for illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

In a detailed statement, the Home Ministry said that all it had done in response to Raje's letter about the presence of illegal Bangladeshis in Rajasthan was to advise "to depute officers for consultations with the concerned authorities in Delhi by way of guidance."

The statement came in response to Raje's interview to The Indian Express editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta, in which she said that the Centre had directed her Government to set up 'transit camps' for illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. A subsequent report in the paper revealed that directions to set up detention centers were indeed given at a meeting at the Home Ministry office on April 25, 2007. In Wednesday's statement, the ministry claimed that the references about the April 25, 2007 meeting made in this paper's report were "factually incorrect".

However, the official records obtained by The Indian Express clearly states that the Centre had asked the "state governments present in the meeting to evaluate the possibility of setting up 'detention centre' on the lines of the one set up in NCT of Delhi". According to the minutes of the meeting in question, the "Home secretary also mentioned that creation of more detention centres would help in instilling a feeling of insecurity among illegally staying foreigners".

The ministry's statement, however, stressed that the now-controversial discussions centred not just on the need to take systematic action for detection and deportation of illegal immigrants, but also to take multi-faceted measures to prevent illegal immigration into the country. It said identification and deportation of illegal immigrants was a continuing process and would be dealt with according to the provisions of the Foreigner's Act, 1946.

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