Amnesty on the situation in Assam: "People become stateless"

When the Indian government's compilation of the nation's citizens ended in August, millions of people in the state of Assam were missing their names among those registered. Now, around 1.9 million people have to prove their citizenship in one of the 100 tribunals in the state for the next six months.

- People are born here, their parents are born here, they have documents. But the tribunal does not think these are sufficient, says Mrinal Sharma, policy advisor at Amnesty in India.

Two cases Amnesty points out are how Abu Bakkar Siddiqui got rid of his citizenship because his grandfather's name Aper was spelled Afer by an official who could not spell correctly in Latin letters. Another is how Samina Bibi was deprived of her citizenship for not being able to remember which constituency her grandfather voted in 1966.

- The burden of proof lies on the individual and not the state, says Mrinal Sharma.

To increase legal certainty, Amnesty wants the trials to be open, and not as now behind closed doors. In addition, the legislation should be reviewed and people who have lost their citizenship should receive it back.

But Indian authorities have other plans. Since few who lose their citizenship will be able to be actively deported to Bangladesh, where Indian authorities believe that many residents of Assam actually come from, people will instead be put in the ten detention camps that India has set up.

- People become stateless. It is deeply problematic and we do not know what will happen to these people, says Mrinal Sharma.

She believes that it is possible to interpret anti-Muslim rhetoric in the judgments, while many believe that the government is pushing for a law that gives citizenship to Hindus on the run.

- We cannot say that most are Muslims, but if you look at the judges you talk about "illegal Muslim immigration", says Mrinal Sharma.