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Anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests have rocked India over the past few days. The government's announcement of a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) has seemingly intensified the protests further. Both CAA and proposed NRC are related to the status of those who entered India illegally for different reasons. Speaking in Parliament, Union Home Minister Amit Shah classified such people as either intruders or refugees.

The question is -- what would be the number of such people presently living in India illegally?

India Today filed a Right to Information (RTI) request with the Ministry of Home Affairs to find an answer to this key question.

We asked exactly how many illegal immigrants have been identified in the last twenty years. We requested the ministry to provide year-wise data with the location about where they are currently living and what their country of origin had been. The Foreigners Division of the Home Ministry has given a long answer.

It said, "Detection and deportation of illegal immigrants is a continuous and ongoing process. To deal with such illegal immigrants, the powers of the Central Government under Section 3 (2)(c) of The Foreigners Act, 1946 to deport illegal foreign nationals and powers under Section 5 of The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 to remove an illegal foreigner by force have been entrusted under Article 258 (1) of the Constitution of India to all the State Governments.

"Further, under Article 239(1) of the Constitution of India, administrators of all Union Territories have also been directed to discharge the functions of the Central Government relating to the aforesaid powers. Therefore, the State Governments /UT Administrations have full powers to detect, detain deport illegal foreign nationals," it said.

"This is a response full of official jargon with not a single fact that answers the RTI queries that have been raised. No number was provided for illegal immigrants, no information provided on their original country or if one were to go looking for them then where should one go to meet illegal immigrants in India.

We had put another question to the Foreigners Division -- how many illegal immigrants have been deported from India in the last twenty years. Our RTI request was, "Please provide year-wise data with the location where they had been living in India and the country to which they have been deported."

The home ministry replied saying, "The required information is not centrally maintained. You may approach the State Governments/UT Administrations for getting the information. The RTI application is also being transferred under Section 6(3) of the RTI Act to the Bureau of Immigration (with regard to Point No 1 and 2) and the Ministry of External Affairs (with regard to Point No 2 only) for providing the available information."

This makes it clear that the Foreigners Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs either has no data on illegal residents and/or their deportation or the MHA does not want to divulge it to the Indian public.

The Ministry of External Affairs in its response said, "The information as sought by you is not available in CPV Division of MEA. However, your RTI application has been transferred to Bureau of Immigration, MHA under section 6 (3) (ii) of the RTI Act, 2005. You may like to follow up with MoI, MHA for further correspondence."

The Bureau of Immigration of the Home Ministry, where our request was transferred by the ministry's Foreigners Division as well as the Ministry of External Affairs said, "As per Chapter VI, Section 24 (1) and Second Schedule of the RTI Act 2005, the Bureau of Immigration (Bol) is exempted from providing any information/details on the subject."

The response from three departments of the central government reminds me of a popular tagline from a detergent's TV commercial -- Dhoondte Reh Jaoge! [you may never find].

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Dhoondte Reh Jaoge: How many illegal residents are there in India? | RTI query - India Today