The team found a makeshift detention center in Sector 10 of Gurugram and found 75 male workers detained there for the last three days. The SHO of the Sector 10 Police Station reluctantly agreed to let the team meet a few workers.
After talking to the workers, the team learnt that over the last three days, 75 workers living in different parts of Gurugram West Zone had been detained. 65 of them were from Assam while 10 were from Nadia and Murshidabad districts of Bengal. Detained during late evening hours on 19 July, the workers are being forced to live in a small hall under extremely unhygienic conditions. Similar exercises had been conducted in other parts of Gurgaon as well, with some zones housing over 200 detainees currently.
The detained workers are all migrants, working in sanitation, garbage sorting, construction and other informal sectors. Some of them are security guards while others are rickshaw pullers. Most of them seem to have their voter cards, PAN cards and Aadhar cards. The Assamese workers the team spoke to, have their NRC certificates in addition to the other documents. Notably, some of them lost some documents when their colonies were demolished over the last one year.
These detentions appear to follow a Ministry of Home Affairs order issued in early May, directing states, UTs, and district authorities to submit “credential reports” on suspected foreigners within 30 days. During this period, such individuals are to be confined in holding centers. If no report is received, the Foreigners Registration Office may initiate deportation.
This order is arbitrary and in violation of fundamental rights, including protection from unlawful detention and the right to livelihood. Detaining individuals under suspicion alone, especially in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions, imposes serious health risks and economic harm, with no compensation for lost earnings.
More importantly, document verification and citizenship status can be determined through standard police verification processes within fixed timeframes. Detention is not a necessary or justifiable step. The 30-day holding period further compounds the risk of wrongful deportation, particularly given the recent history of hasty and error-ridden verifications.
Be it through the SIR in Bihar or arbitrary citizenship verification process directed against Bengali-speaking migrant workers, the government is sparing no means to deprive migrant workers of their rights. Muslim migrant workers, especially those who speak Bengali, are doubly vulnerable to the communally motivated government campaign in the name of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis.
The MHA order should be immediately withdrawn, the government should stick to regular processes identifying foreigners, detained workers should be compensated for the loss of livelihood and for mental harassment not only in Gurugram but all across India, and the harassment of Bengali speaking migrant workers must immediately stop.
