Upamanyu Hazarika, a lawyer who works on migration issues, said the number of illegal immigrants living in Assam now reached into the millions. In December, the state government released an early draft of the citizenship list, which left out some 13 million people. In some cases, children were on the list, but parents or members of older generations who often do not have citizenship documents were not. Families said they feared being torn apart, and several suicides were linked to the long, bureaucratic process. “There is no mechanism to deport people and that question shouldn’t arise now,” he said in a telephone interview.

Source: New York Times July 30, 2018 12:56 UTC