By Dharmesh Prajapati
India has intensified efforts to address illegal immigration and infiltration concerns. Several cases of undocumented migrants have already been identified in states such as West Bengal and Gujarat. Most of them are reportedly Bangladeshi nationals. This raises questions about how India handles such cases and the overall process it follows to identify, detain, and deport illegal migrants back to their country of origin.
MEA Explains Full Process
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal addressed these concerns during his weekly briefing on Friday. He said that India has clear laws to deal with foreign nationals staying illegally in the country, including those from Bangladesh, and that they are processed under due legal procedures. He explained that deportation is carried out through a bilateral mechanism between India and Bangladesh.
Under this system, cases are first sent to Bangladesh for verification of the individual’s nationality. Once confirmation is received, the deportation process is initiated. Jaiswal further highlighted that many verification requests are currently pending with the Bangladeshi authorities. Jaiswal said India expects these cases to be expedited so that the deportation process can proceed smoothly and efficiently for those found to be staying illegally in the country.
He said, “Foreign nationals in India, if they are here illegally, including from Bangladesh, we have laws to deal with them and they’ll be accordingly dealt with. As far as the deportation of these people is concerned, there is a bilateral mechanism in place and we refer these cases to the Bangladeshi side for them to verify the nationality of these people and once it is verified, then we take forward the deportation process.”
“We have many of these requests which are still pending with the Bangladeshi side and if you hope and expect that they’ll be expedited as soon as possible, so that the deportation of people who are illegally staying in India can be taken forward smoothly and efficiently,” Jaiswal added. Earlier in May, MEA said it had requested Dhaka to verify the nationality of more than 2,860 suspected Bangladeshi nationals believed to be living illegally in India.
Dhaka Claims Border Infringement Attempts
Amid these developments, Bangladesh on Thursday stated that it had foiled several attempts by India to push people across the border over the previous 24 hours. According to news agency Reuters report, the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) said it had detected 10 attempted border infringements by Indian authorities along several stretches of the frontier. So far, Indian authorities have not reacted to these claims.