The fate of over 1.9 million people who have been left out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam now rests with the Foreigners Tribunals.
For the last 15 years, Foreigners Tribunals have wreaked havoc in Assam by arbitrarily denying people their citizenship. Riddled with bias, they have declared Indian citizens to be foreigners for minor spelling mistakes in their names, their inability to provide detailed documents or recall minute ancestral details dating back 50 years or more. These semi-judicial bodies have not been held accountable by the courts, the Government of India and the Government of Assam. Instead, they have been emboldened to function with little or no oversight.
Amnesty International India strongly urges the Government of India to ensure that the Foreigners Tribunals function with utmost transparency and operate in line with fair trial standards. They must ensure legitimate citizenship claims are not rejected due to a broken system steeped in discrimination. They must be encouraged to include and not designed to exclude.
Download the full report: Assam-Foreigners-Tribunals-Report-1
