GUWAHATI, India (RNS) — More than a dozen residents of the northeast Indian state of Assam have killed themselves amid fears of imprisonment or deportation as the government carries out a massive exercise to drive out people it says are in the country illegally, especially Muslims from neighboring Bangladesh.

Local media reports have linked at least 16 suicides to the ongoing process to update citizenship records in Assam, which borders Bangladesh, home to the world’s fourth-largest Muslim population.

Suicides follow India’s anti-immigrant drive targeting Muslims