A 56-year-old Muslim man of Bengali origin who was arrested in May amid a crackdown on declared foreigners in Assam died in detention on Sunday. He was suffering from cancer, which was detected on August 11.

Amzad Ali, a resident of Rowmari village under Tarabari Police Station of Barpeta district, had been lodged in the Matia detention centre since his arrest on May 28.

Ali died at the State Cancer Institute Guwahati, where he had been admitted on Thursday, Dwipen Khanikar, the medical superintendent of the facility, told Scroll.

“His health first deteriorated in the camp in August and we sent him to the Goalpara Civil Hospital, from where he was referred to the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital on August 1,” said an official at the Matia detention centre.

On August 11, his clinical reports showed that he was suffering from cancer.

“Doctors at the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital had said that there is no treatment for the cancer and he will be given only palliative care,” the detention centre official told Scroll. “We were taking his care at the transit camp. But his health became serious as he stopped eating.”

On September 1, Ali’s cousin Abdul Jalil wrote to the Goalpara Deputy Commissioner seeking his release on account of his cancer diagnosis and rapidly deteriorating health condition.

“The superintendent of the detention camp has already informed and advised me to take him home for proper hospitalisation and medical treatment,” read the letter.

Jalil told Scroll that the authorities refused to release Ali.

He is survived by his mother, wife, three sons and four daughters.

Ali was tagged as a “D” voter, or a doubtful voter, during the 1997 revision of the Assam electoral rolls by the Election Commission.

In 2017, the foreigners tribunal in Assam issued a notice to him.

Foreigner tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies unique to Assam, which rule on citizenship cases. They have been accused of arbitrariness and bias, and of declaring people foreigners on the basis of minor spelling mistakes, a lack of documents or lapses in memory.

Ali contested the case, but the tribunal declared him a foreigner on April 1, 2021.

His family members alleged that he was unaware of the ruling till the police arrived at his home in May. “The advocate representing him never informed my cousin about the verdict,” Abdul Jalil, Ali’s cousin from Barpeta, told Scroll.

Ali had submitted the National Register of Citizens prepared in 1951, which listed his parents’ names, and voter lists from 1966 and 1970 that featured his maternal grandparents.

“His father’s name is in the 1951 NRC, but the tribunal did not accept the documents citing minor inconsistencies and linkage issues,” Jalil told Scroll.

His mother had told the tribunal that Ali was her son, but it rejected her submission, saying “she failed to give evidence of the correct entry of the date of the birth of her own son”.

The tribunal order also claimed that she was “hired and tutored for the purpose of the creating evidence before the tribunal”.

This is the second instance of an inmate at the Matia detention centre dying this year. In April, Md Abdul Motlib, a 42-year-old resident of Madertali village in Assam’s Hojai district, who was lodged at the centre, died at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital.

According to government data, 31 persons declared as “illegal foreigners” by Assam’s foreigners tribunals and lodged in detention centres have died between 2015 and 2022.

Ali’s death came months after the Supreme Court stated that the conditions at the Matia detention centre for refugees are “far from satisfactory” and directed the Assam government to improve the facilities within a month.

The detention centre in Goalpara became operational in January 2023. It is the largest detention centre in India. As of September 18, 2024, it held 274 inmates.

On October 4, the top court directed the Assam Legal Services Authority to make surprise visits to inspect the living conditions of refugees at the detention centre.

In November, the Supreme Court noted that the detailed report submitted by the Legal Services Authority pointed out that even basic amenities are lacking at the detention centre.

In July 2024, the court had rapped the state government for the “sorry state of affairs” at the centre, including inadequate water supply and the lack of proper toilets. It also said that the quality of food being served to refugees needs to be assessed, along with the availability of healthcare services.

In May, the border police in Assam arrested several people from Golaghat, Dhubri, Barpeta and Cachar districts who had been declared foreigners in the past by foreigners’ tribunals.

Also read: In May crackdown on ‘foreigners’, only Bengali-origin Muslims sent to Assam detention centre

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