The camp is the state’s first to solely host “illegal aliens,” and it was established in accordance with the Centre’s criteria. Until far, the inmates have been housed in six “detention facilities” spread across Assam, all of which are within prisons.
Senior government sources informed The Indian Express that the first batch of at least 68 “foreigners” were taken to a newly built “detention centre” — now officially termed as a “transit camp” — at Goalpara in Assam on Friday. This marks the start of a projected phased relocation of “foreigners” to the Matia Transit Camp, located 150 kilometres from Guwahati.
The camp is the state’s first to solely host “illegal aliens,” and it was established in accordance with the Centre’s criteria. Until far, the inmates have been housed in six “detention facilities” spread across Assam, all of which are within prisons.
According to government officials, those sent to the centre include both persons branded “foreigners” by Assam’s Foreigner Tribunals and those convicted by judicial courts for breaking visa rules.
“68 persons have been relocated, including 45 men, 21 women, and two children. “They were identified as foreign nationals,” said Barnali Sharma, Assam’s Inspector General of Prisons.
Two of the six current “detention centres” are in district jails (Kokrajhar and Goalpara) and four are in central jails (Tezpur, Silchar, Dibrugarh and Jorhat). According to state government data, the six centres housed 195 inmates as of September 2022. In 2021, in a “a move to humanise prison cells”, the Assam government changed the name to “Transit Camp for detention purpose”.
The Matia Transit Camp, situated between farmlands and woodland, occupies 20 bighas, and was created on a budget of about Rs 46 crore, with a potential to host “up to 3,000 illegal aliens”.