There is a concerted effort by authorities across states to identify and deport illegal Bangladeshi immigrants especially after the military conflict between India and Pakistan, data from several states shows.
Recently, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi directed authorities to take strict action against Bangladesh nationals staying illegally in the state.
The Odisha government announced that it would identify and remove illegal Bangladeshis from employment across the state. The districts of Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Ganjam have been identified as possible areas housing illegal migrants in Odisha.
Which other states are taking the same route?
Several states have begun the process of identifying Bangladeshis staying illegally in various parts, as a part of an exercise to deport illegal immigrants.
Border Security Force (BSF) data showed that Delhi leads among the states sending back these individuals over land via the eastern border.
According to reports, the Delhi Police handed over the highest number of “illegal” Bangladeshi immigrants. At least 520 individuals identified by the Delhi police as illegal Bangladeshi migrants and foreigners who have overstayed have been deported via the land border to Bangladesh since the terror attack on April 22, The Indian Express quoted a Delhi Police officer as saying.
Officials are rounding up identified illegal immigrants and transporting them to border points in Assam, Tripura, and Meghalaya. From here, they are “pushed back” across the border by the Border Security Force (BSF).
Maharashtra also conducted a similar exercise with the Mumbai Police saying that 300 illegal Bangladeshis were deported. Police told NDTV that 766 such illegal immigrants have been arrested in 2025.
In Mumbai, 4.8 lakh ration cards belonging to Bangladeshi residents were cancelled.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that his government has taken a firm decision to continue pushing back illegal immigrants back to Bangladesh following the provisions of Immigrant Expulsion from Assam Act 1950.
“The pushback, carried out under the provisions of the Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act, 1950, is part of the state’s reinvigorated approach following a key Supreme Court verdict on Section 6A of the Citizenship Act in 2024,” he told reporters.
Why is India ‘pushing back’ illegal Bangladeshi immigrants?
The bullets that echoed in the Baisaran Valley in Pahalgam, killing 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen on April 22, shook India.
Apart from avenging the terror attack via Operation Sindoor on May 7, India “pushed back” over 2,500 allegedly illegal Bangladeshi immigrants across the international border.
The action follows a nationwide verification drive initiated after the Pahalgam attack to curb infiltrators. India has intensified its efforts to identify and deport Bangladeshi nationals residing illegally within its borders, handing them over to BGB personnel.
According to many reports, many immigrants have also voluntarily approached the India-Bangladesh border in recent weeks.
A 2016 government estimate puts the number of illegal immigrants in India at around 20 million.
The MHA has set a 30-day deadline for States and UTs to verify suspected illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar. If verification fails, deportation proceedings will follow. An integrated server will support this process.
Is action against Bangladeshi immigrants new?
Even during the earlier UPA regime, RPN Singh, who served as MoS (Home) from 2012 to 2014, claimed in 2018 that the Manmohan Singh government had deported 82,000 immigrants.
Even the Narendra Modi regime undertook the drive citing security concerns. In 2018, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had referred to Bangladeshi immigrants as “termites”. In 2023, the Centre also introduced a District Police Module on the Immigration Visa Foreigner Registration Tracking (IVFRT) portal to track overstaying foreigners.
What does Dhaka say?
Brigadier General Md Nazim-ud-Daula, the director of the Military Operations Directorate (MOD), called India's move “unacceptable”. He condemned the “pushing in” of undocumented people by Indian authorities, and threatened to intervene if the need arose. He said the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) was handling the situation well for now.
Bangladesh Home Affairs Adviser Lieutenant General Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (Retired) had on May 18 said that if any Bangladeshi immigrant was staying illegally in India, they should be repatriated through proper channels.
He also said that Indian nationals found staying illegally would be repatriated through proper diplomatic channels.
“Bangladesh does not engage in push-ins like India but believes in resolving issues through diplomacy", Chowdhury was quoted as saying by The Dhaka Tribune.
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