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The Supreme Court on Thursday sought a response from the Centre and nine States, including the Union Territory of Delhi, to a plea challenging the alleged detention and torture of Indian migrant workers, while the State authorities search for Bangladeshi immigrants.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi issued notice to the Centre and the governments of nine States and UTs after hearing submissions by Advocate Prashant Bhushan. Bhushan argued that the said detention is illegal and not permitted under the Foreigners Act and sought the Court to intervene. The Court opined that a mechanism is required to enable the authorities to check details such as the place of origin (pre-immigration) and the place of work (post-immigration) of workers to find out if they are bona fide workers or foreign immigrants. The Court listed the matter to be heard after one week. The plea was filed by the West Bengal Migrant Workers' Welfare Board. The plea came after police and authorities in several states had detained "illegal immigrants" from Bangladesh. Earlier on August 5, Delhi Police said they had arrested five Bangladeshi "illegal immigrants" and launched an investigation. "All of them are illegal immigrants", police said, adding that "They tried to forcibly enter the Red Fort premises". "The age of all of them is around 20-25 years, and they work as labourers in Delhi. The Police have recovered some Bangladeshi documents from them. Currently, they are being interrogated," police said. Meanwhile, Gurugram Police had detained ten Bangladeshi nationals who were found to be living illegally in the city, according to police officials. Identification documents recovered from them confirmed their Bangladeshi nationality. Sandeep Kumar, PRO of Gurugram Police, said earlier, "Ten illegal Bangladeshi immigrants have been detained. Bangladeshi documents have been recovered from them. The process to deport them has begun." (ANI)
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