Trichy: Located within the premises of the central prison at Kottapattu, Tiruchirappalli, the Foreigners Special Camp houses more than 140 foreign nationals from countries including Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The camp is administered by the revenue department and is used to accommodate foreign nationals who are facing trials in various courts. It also comprises people awaiting clearance from their respective embassies or high commissions for repatriation. A camp trapped in bureaucratic limboMany detainees are awaiting the outcome of cases involving immigration violation, visa overstays, possession of expired passport and other minor offences. While some are waiting for the commencement of trial, others have already been acquitted by the courts or have completed their sentences.The camp is managed by district revenue authorities, with security provided by the Tamil Nadu Special Police battalion in Trichy. Deportation is processed by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FFRO) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, in coordination with the respective embassies or high commissions of the detainees’ home countries.The primary obstacles to release are no longer legal but procedural: delays in obtaining emergency travel certificates, deportation orders from the FRRO and the arrangement of repatriation travel. Compounding these delays is the persistent ambiguity over who should bear the cost of air travel, the government or the detainee. As a result, individuals who have secured bail, completed sentences or been acquitted by competent courts continue to remain behind barbed wire, waiting indefinitely for administrative processes to move forward. The detention facility has become a space of systematic neglect, where people are held not because the law demands it, but because no authority is willing or able to take the procedural steps required to release them. South African woman remains confined seven months after acquittalA 57-year-old South African national, was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in 2017. In a judgment dated in August 29, 2025, the Madras high court set aside her conviction and sentence, directed the return of her passport and other documents and ordered the initiation of deportation proceedings.Despite her acquittal and the court’s explicit instructions, she remained confined in the foreigners special camp under a movement restriction order by the FRRO, Chennai. She has been living with HIV/AIDS for more than a decade and requires continuous medical treatment, proper nutrition and regular healthcare. The conditions prevailing in the camp have severely affected her health and exposed her to grave medical risks.On February 18, 2026, she approached the Madurai bench of Madras high court seeking implementation of the earlier directions. The court directed the authorities to complete the deportation formalities within six weeks. Nevertheless, administrative delays persisted. Only after sustained legal intervention and repeated follow-up was she eventually deported on May 26, 2026.If this is what justice requires for one person who has already been acquitted, what hope remains for the many still waiting inside the camp?During the course of this investigation, several foreign women from economically disadvantaged backgrounds were encountered. They reported having travelled to India after being promised employment, only to be abandoned, deprived of their travel documents and left entirely dependent on intermediaries for food and shelter. Several alleged that they were subjected to deplorable conditions and pressured into sexual exploitation for survival. The failure to identify vulnerable migrants and potential trafficking survivors raises questions about compliances with Article 23 of the Indian constitution and India’s obligations under anti-trafficking laws and international conventions. Conditions inside the foreigner’s special campApproximately 125 detainees were present at the time these reporters visited Trichy special camp, including over 100 men, 25 women and two minor children. Several women and children remain detained in the camp with limited access to basic amenities. Photo: Mouriya S. and K.R. Raja.Each detainee receives a daily allowance of Rs 175, which is expected to cover food, drinking water, healthcare expenses and other basic amenities. Both observations and testimonies from detainees revealed serious shortcomings in the camps living conditions, such as inadequate food and nutritional support, insufficient drinking water, poor sanitation, unhygienic living quarters, non-functional toilet facilities, the dearth of menstrual hygiene products, a lack of dedicated sanitation staff, severe mosquito infestation and limited access to healthcare. Medical consultation is available only on designated days and there is no effective emergency medical response mechanism within the camp. The camp also lacks mental health services and counselling facilities. Detainees face restrictions on communication with family members and have limited access to newspapers, educational material and recreational facilities. There are no educational or welfare measures for children. The daily allowance provided is grossly insufficient and most women detainees face additional hardships relating to healthcare and dignity.Children residing in the camp are deprived of educational and developmental opportunities essential for their well-being. These conditions are glaringly inconsistent with the standards prescribed under the Ministry of Home Affairs 2019 Model Detention Centre Manual, which stipulates detention centre to provide facilities that uphold human dignity, irrespective of nationality. Voices from withinRobert Payas, one of the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case who was released after serving more than 32 years in prison, wrote to former Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin on December 29, 2022, describing the conditions at the Trichy special camp. In his letter, he had stated that the plight of the camp was even worse than prison, calling it a place where there was “no opportunity to feel and breathe freedom.” Further, he described the atmosphere as “intimidating” and marked by “untold hardship and stress” caused by severe restrictions on movement and daily life. A Sri Lankan Tamil refugee and former Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadre, Bhaskaran Kumarasamy, said:“I lie awake many times till five in the morning. I keep having suicidal thoughts and losing the will to live.”His words reflect the absence of any fruitful rehabilitation, release or review policy for long-term detainees. Several foreign nationals also reported that none of the camp officials were able to communicate effectively in English, leaving many detainees unable to explain even their most basic grievances or seek assistance. Denial of access to justiceOne of the most serious legal concerns is the near absence of effective access to justice. Since detainees were arrested in different districts across the state, their criminal cases remain pending before courts located in various jurisdictions. Each hearing requires the detainee to be physically present at the court. However, police escorts are frequently unavailable, resulting in repeated adjournments and significant delays in the progress of their cases. The camp also lacks video-conferencing facilities, despite such infrastructure being widely available in prisons and courts. Consequently, detainees remain dependent on physical transportation, delaying judicial proceedings. The structural deficiencies have made timely access to justice near impossible, elongating detention and uncertainty. Human rights organisations, like the Global Detention Project, have repeatedly documented concerns regarding immigration detention in India, noting the systematic failure to meet minimum standards prescribed under domestic and international law. Detainees protest, demand deportationFrustration over circumstances culminated in a protest on the night of November 18, 2025, when detainees at the camp demanded immediate deportation and repatriation. The Trichy city police commissioner and the district collector personally visited the camp and assured the detainees that those who had been acquitted would be deported at the earliest. However, that promise has remained largely unfulfilled. Global Network for Equality team distributes toys, snacks and books to children living inside the camp, Photo: Mouriya S. and K.R. Raja.The protest was not an isolated incident but the consequence of years of administrative delay, ignored court orders and the absence of administrative accountability. The Tamil Nadu government sanctioned Rs 1.76 crore to enhance security at the special camp. Rather than examining the delays or improving living conditions, they chose to invest in stronger security infrastructure. The decision raises a fundamental question: why was substantial public funding allocated to strengthen the security of the camp to contain detainees, instead of addressing the systemic failures that had driven them to protest in the first place? Constitutional protections and Supreme Court directionsArticle 21 of the constitution guarantees the right to life and personal liberty to “any person,” not merely to Indian citizens. The Supreme Court, in “Mohammad Salimulaah vs Union of India (2021),” expressly confirmed the Articles 14 and 21 extend to non-citizens as well.On February 4, 2025, a bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan strongly criticised the Assam government over the extended detention of foreign nationals. Justice Bhuyan observed:“Once you declare a person a foreigner, you have to take the next logical step. You cannot detain them till eternity.”The court directed the immediate deportation of 63 detainees within two weeks, ordered detention centres to be inspected every 15 days by designated committees and rejected the argument that the absence of foreign addresses justified continued detention. The court held that administrative difficulties cannot become a basis for indefinite confinement. These principles apply with equal force to foreign nationals detained in the Trichy foreigners special camp. Earlier, in 2019, the Madras high court, while directing medical care for the woman, affirmed that even foreign prisoners are entitled to protection under Article 21.The right to returnThe Madras high court, in its landmark 2020 judgement concerning foreign nationals detained under The Foreigners Act, declared that detainees have a right to return to their native countries at the earliest opportunity and that continued incarceration infringes Article 21. Justice G.R. Swaminathan held: “The continuance of the criminal prosecution would certainly amount to an infraction of their fundamental right under Article 21.” The constitutional principles articulated by the high court continue to be undermined daily at the Trichy special camp. MHA’s 2019 detention manual and international obligationOn January 9, 2019, the Ministry of Home Affairs circulated a Model Detention Centre/Holding Centre Manual to all state governments pursuant to directions issued by the Supreme Court. The manual requires detention centers to “maintain standards of living in consonance facilities, medical care, kitchen provisions and recreational facilities.” It specifically mandates that special attention be given to women, nursing mothers and children and requires that children living in detention centres be provided educational facilities. The Trichy camp, by every documented measure, falls far short of the government’s standards. India is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), under which Article 9 prohibits arbitrary detention and Article 10 mandates that every person deprived of liberty be treated with humanity and respect for their inherent dignity. India has also ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The CRC Committee has explicitly stated that immigration detention of children is incompatible with the convention and that detention can never be justified solely on the basis of a child’s or paren’t immigration status. At the time of the investigation, two children were residing inside the Trichy special camp. Their detention is not only a matter of policy discretion, but also a treaty violation.The government must heed this callThe Trichy foreigners special camp is not an anomaly, it is a deliberate institutional failure in which responsibility for detention, deportation and repatriation is fragmented across multiple authorities, allowing bureaucratic delay to become deprivation of liberty. The consequences are borne entirely the detainees.Through the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, the Government of India has signalled its intention to modernise the country’s immigration framework. That effort, however, will remain incomplete unless it also touches upon the fundamental problem of indefinite detention arising from administrative delay. What is required is timely administrative action to ensure that court orders are implemented, deportation procedures are completed and detention remains an exceptional and strictly time-bound measure.Until then, the gap between constitutional promise and administrative reality will continue to be measured in months, and sometimes years, of lost liberty.Mouriya S. is an advocate based in Madurai who works on child rights, the rights of children of crime victims, prisoner rights and prison reforms. K.R. Raja is a practising human rights lawyer based in Madurai who works on the welfare of crime victims, child rights, prison reforms and the rights of differently abled people.