Detained Bangladeshi migrants are pictured at a crime branch office in Ahmedabad on April 26, 2025 following an operation by the Gujarat Police.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Over the past month, India has been “pushing back” undocumented Bangladeshi migrants detained across the country through the eastern border, government officials told The Hindu.

In one instance, on May 4, two Air India planes transported 300 undocumented migrants, including 200 women and children, who were earlier detained in Gujarat, to Agartala in Tripura. They were subsequently sent to Bangladesh via the land border.

On April 26, the Gujarat Police had detained over 1,000 suspected Bangladeshi nationals from Ahmedabad and Surat.

According to a government official, as many as 295 Bangladeshis were “deported” in 2024, and this year till April 30, around 100 Bangladeshi citizens have been deported and handed over to the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB).

According to the Daily Star, a Bangladesh daily, the Foreign Ministry of Bangladesh sent a letter to India on May 8 “raising concern over people being pushed into the country and urged New Delhi to adhere to established repatriation mechanisms”.

The External Affairs Ministry is yet to comment on the subject.

On Wednesday (May 14, 2025), Rajasthan Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Jogaram Patel said in Jaipur that about 1,000 suspected Bangladeshi nationals had been identified as residing in different parts of the State. “The first batch of 148 Bangladeshi nationals was transported to Jodhpur and flown to Kolkata on Wednesday (May 14, 2025). From there, they will be deported to Bangladesh,” Mr. Patel said.

According to sources, most of the detainees brought to Jodhpur were from Sikar district. The Village Development Officers’ Training Centre in Jodhpur has been temporarily converted into a detention facility for the Bangladeshi nationals. Mr. Patel said a similar deportation process would be followed for pushing back the foreign nationals in the coming days.

On May 10, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said at a press conference in Guwahati that the government had decided to implement the “push back” mechanism to check infiltration instead of going through the legal route.

“Infiltration is a big issue. We have now decided we will not go through the legal process. Earlier, decision was to arrest a person and then bring him to the Indian legal system… Earlier also we used to arrest 1,000-1,500 foreigners…they must be sent to jail and then they are produced before a court of law. Now, we have decided that we will not bring them inside the country, we will push them. This pushing back is a new phenomenon. Every year, 5,000 people enter the country and because of pushback this number will become minimise now,” Mr. Sarma said.

On concerns raised by Bangladesh, the government official quoted above said, “These are their citizens and they should accept them.”

After political changes in Bangladesh in August 2024, on the directions of the Union Home Ministry, the States started a crackdown on illegally staying foreigners in the country. The momentum increased after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, officials said.

The Hindu reported on March 31 that the voluntary return of undocumented Bangladeshis had also seen an increase following the crackdown.

Against 337 undocumented Bangladeshis without visas and passports who were apprehended while crossing the eastern border into that country from January to July 2024, those apprehended in the subsequent months, from August 2024 till March 21 this year, stood at 906. Out of this, 411 exits had been recorded from January to March.

 The total length of the India-Bangladesh border is 4,096.7 km, of which 3,232.21 km is fenced.

(With Inputs from Mohammed Iqbal in Jaipur)