New Delhi, May 26 -- Two days after the state Home and Hill Affairs Department's Foreigners' Branch directed all district administrations to establish "holding centres" to house apprehended "foreigners" or those awaiting deportation or repatriation, Malda and Murshidabad in West Bengal have become the first districts to follow the order. The detainees either entered India illegally or lack valid documents of their citizenship.

While Malda opened a holding centre which currently houses nine suspected Bangladeshis or Rohingyas, Murshidabad holds three foreigners, according to a Times of India report. The detainees have been not been arrested under Section 14 of Foreigners Act, 1946, but nationalities of these inmates are being determined....