Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2017/02 expelled would be expelled again; on or after 24 March 1971 would be detected, deleted from electoral rolls and expelled from the territory.109 Thus, the Accord grants citizenship to those who entered Assam before 1 January 1966 and limited access to citizenship to those who entered after 1 January 1966 but before 24 March 1971. However, anyone entering Assam after 24 March 1971 would be expelled. It remains unclear where they would be expelled to and what would happen to the status of their nationality, thus they would most likely be rendered statelessness. By authorising the detention and expulsion of foreigners, some of whom were once considered lawful citizens, the Accord is at odds with Article 31 of the 1954 Convention. 3.2 Srimavo-Shastri Agreement between India and Sri Lanka, 1964 The case of stateless Tamils of Indian origin in Sri Lanka had long been a problem in the bilateral relations between India and Sri Lanka.110 The Srimavo-Shastri Pact was a landmark agreement reached between the two countries in 1964. The pact agreed to grant nationality to those rendered stateless following India’s independence. As per the pact, 975, 000 stateless persons would be repatriated or granted citizenship over the period of 15 years.111 In 1974, a follow-up agreement decided that the remaining 75,000 persons (with their offspring) would be repatriated to India and the residual 75,000 persons (with their offspring) would be granted Sri Lankan citizenship. However, in 1982, India informed Sri Lanka that it will no longer entertain any applications for Indian citizenship as the specified period of 15 years was completed and thus no longer considered the pacts binding. During this time 86, 000 applications were still pending, while 90, 000 Indian Tamils had been granted Indian citizenship but were still awaiting repatriation.112 In 1984, repatriations to India ceased as a result of the inter-ethnic violence.113 This rendered many who obtained Indian citizenship but were not repatriated to India unprotected. Nevertheless, Sri-Lankan citizenship was granted to stateless persons of Indian origin in 1988114 and 2003115, which finally resolved the problem of stateless Hill Tamils in Sri-Lanka in light of the 1954 and 1961 Conventions. 3.3 Land Boundary Agreement between India and Bangladesh The India-Bangladesh enclaves116 resulted from the Partition of British India, which later led to the secession of Bangladesh from Pakistan, which hosted thousands of stateless persons. Initial attempts 109 Assam Accord, 1985 Phadnis, U., 'The Indo-Ceylon Pact and the "Stateless" Indians in Ceylon.' Asian Survey, Vol. 7, No. 4, 1967, p. 226 111 Ibid., p. 228 112 World Directory of Minority Rights Group International, 'Sri Lanka- Tamils', available at: http://minorityrights.org/minorities/tamils/ [accessed 17 November 2016] 113 Ghosh, D.P.S., 'Migrants, Refugees and the Stateless in South Asia,’ SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2016, p. 46. 114 The 1988 Act granted Sri-Lankan citizenship to stateless persons of Indian origin who were lawfully resident in Sri-Lanka and not within those who applied for Indian Citizenship. Section 2, Grant of Citizenship to Stateless Persons Act, 1988 115 See Grant of Citizenship to Persons of Indian Origin Act, 2003 116 See Reece, J., 'Sovereignty and statelessness in the border enclaves of India and Bangladesh', Political Geography Vol. 28 (2009), p. 373 110 13