Amnesty concerned over transparency of Foreigners’ Tribunals

After the final National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam left out over 1.9 million people, Amnesty International India today appealed to the state government to ensure that the Foreigners' Tribunals function with utmost transparency.

The tribunals "should function in line with the fair trial standards guaranteed under national and international laws", Aakar Patel, head of Amnesty International India, said in a statement.

"Several reports have demonstrated how the proceedings before Foreigners' Tribunals are arbitrary while their orders are biased and discriminatory," he said.

Patel expressed deep concern over the functioning of the 100 and more Foreigners' Tribunals, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

"Although the government of India is within its sovereign right to update NRC, it must ensure that it is not depriving a person of his/her nationality on arbitrary or vague grounds by diminishing procedural due process or if such deprivation stands to render a person stateless," he said.

According to the Amnesty International India, there were instances of Foreigners' Tribunals declaring citizens as irregular foreigners over clerical errors such as minor differences in spellings of names or age in electoral rolls or slight contradictions between answers given in cross-examinations and what is written in the documents, which it termed "appallingly common".

Patel cited media reports that alleged Assam government was applying "pressure on members to allegedly declare large numbers of people as irregular foreigners."

"Assam is on the brink of a crisis which would not only lead to a loss of nationality and liberty of a large group of people but also erosion of their basic rights - severely affecting the lives of generations to come," the statement added.