Assam: Detention camps that are meant for illegal immigrants have become the house of many Assamese residents who failed to prove their citizenship.
As per The Quint report, people who are declared foreigner or arrested by Border Police are sent to Goalpara District Jail which also serves as a detention camp.
28 people lost lives
Till November 2019, 28 people lost their lives in detention camps of Assam. Subrata Dey is one of them.
In 2005, a voter id that was issued to Dey had mentioned his name as ‘Subodh Dey’. He was marked as ‘Doubtful Voter’ due to confusion over the spelling of his name.
His case went to Goalpara Foreigners Tribunal where the hearing took place for 9 years. Tribunal asked him to approach the High Court for error correction.
Ultimately, on 26th May 2018, border police arrested him for being a D voter. He was sent to Goalpara Detention Camp.
Talking about the difficulties his family faced, his wife said that they used to visit the camp once a week by arranging bus fare, money to buy fruits for him. His wife alleged that they had to pay bribes even in the SP’s office to get a visitors’ pass.
Narrating her conversion with her husband at the detention camp, she said that Dey used to ask her not to waste money by visiting the detention camp instead used it to get him released by filling a case.
Family in tears
With tears in her eyes, Shweta Dey, daughter of Subrata Dey said that when he was home, he used to give her Rs. 10 every day which she used to save. ‘So, when I went to detention camp, I bought him apples’, she added.
On 26th June 2018, the dreams of the family to get Dey out of detention camp were shattered as he died of a heart attack inside the camp.
Talking about life without husband, Dey’s wife said that it’s very tough. ‘My daughter wants to eat nice stuff, drink milk with Horlicks. But I can’t afford it’, she added.
It may be mentioned that Shweta is yet to accept the fact that her father is no more.
Life in detention camp
Speaking on the life in the detention camp, another person, Ravi Dev who was released from the camp after four years, said that they used to come out of the cell at 5:15 a.m. and at 6:30 p.m., they were locked in their cell again.