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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 limbo

Many 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 acquittal

A 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........

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