The Assam government has renamed as many as six detention centres for ‘foreigners’ as transit camps. 

The detention centres, which now will be known as transit camps, are located inside the jails of Dibrugarh, Goalpara, Jorhat, Kokrajhar, Silchar and Tezpur. 

“The nomenclature of detention centre is changed to ‘transit camp’ for detention purpose,” read a notification. 

These six detention centres or ‘transit camps’ currently house a total of 181 inmates, 61 of whom are declared foreigners and 120 are convicted foreigners awaiting deportation. 

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Detention centres are used to hold persons identified as foreigners and awaiting deportation or repatriation, or persons waiting for their citizenship claims to be settled. 

Meanwhile, a massive detention centre is under construction at Agia in Goalpara district of Assam. It will accommodate up to 3000 people. 

Of the total 22 children lodged in three detention centres in Kokrajhar, Silchar and Tezpur, 20 are below 14 years of age.