Assam: IT system soon to track illegal foreigners’ locations

Guwahati: The present manual process of tracking, identification and processing cases of illegal foreign nationals in Assam will soon be replaced with a sophisticated IT technology.

The state government preparing to launch an IT system having biometric details of suspected and declared foreigners illegally living in the state that would also enable police to track the geographical location of illegal foreigners. 

Currently being prepared by Assam Police Border Organisation, the system would also alert government officials to do the follow up on the ‘detected’ foreigners.

This will also be used to notify officials for denial of government services to the declared foreigners. Sources said that it would help state police to initiate actions against the declared foreigners or suspected foreigners including deportation to their natives in Bangladesh. 

It’s believed to be an integral part of the state police’s electronic Foreigner Tribunals (eFT) project, a database of suspected and declared illegal foreign migrants with important data such as iris and fingerprints. On December 22, state government informed the Assembly that a total of 142,206 illegal migrants have been identified, of which only 29,663 were deported till December 15 this year.

In 2020, the Gauhati high court had asked the Assam Police to ensure that ‘declared foreigners’ lodged at the state’s six detention camps be released on bail if they have completed more than two years of stay in custody. The high court directive was in response to a Supreme Court order on April 13, which in turn was in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking their immediate release due to the fear of the spread of the coronavirus.

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