India deports over 40 undocumented migrants to Bangladesh; BSF-BGB faceoff at border
BSF personnel patrol along the India-Bangladesh border. Image courtesy: X.com/@BSF_India
New Delhi: The Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) had a major faceoff after India’s bid to push undocumented migrants back into its neighbouring nation from West Bengal on Friday. The confrontation ended only after the BSF presented video evidence of some of the undocumented migrants claiming they were Bangladeshi nationals, resulting in the BGB backing off.
This was the major conflict between the two border-guarding forces, as the Indian government is implementing its home ministry’s policy of identifying, tracking, and deporting undocumented migrants. The effort has intensified as a new West Bengal government came to power under the new chief minister, Suvendu Adhikari.
The latest flare-up along the India-Bangladesh border was reported from four points, with allegedly 40-plus Bangladeshi nationals, who were stranded overnight on Friday, disappearing from the flash point on Saturday morning. The most intense confrontation between the BSF and BGB was reported from Panishala in Cooch Behar’s Mekhliganj, where 10 people, said to be Bangladeshis, were stranded overnight after the BGB refused to accept them and accused the BSF of pushing them into their country.
The BGB reportedly turned down a flag meeting request from BSF on Friday. However, the hours of haggling between the two sides boiled over in the early hours of Saturday. BSF said all the stranded people on the Bangladesh border had entered the neighbouring country as the Sun rose.
BGB claims foiling BSF deportation push
But BGB claimed it foiled eight separate BSF efforts to push people onto its side of the border in the last 24 hours, its public relations officer, Shariful Islam, said in a statement. Similar scenes were witnessed in three other locations at Sitalkuchi and Dinhata in Cooch Behar and Sakati in Jalpaiguri Sadar, where around 30 undocumented migrants, including women and children, were left in the lurch on Friday. These people also vanished from there on Saturday.
The BSF, in a bid to convince BGB that the 40-odd people were Bangladeshi nationals, showed a video of a woman, who claimed in the clip that she was originally from Khulna in Bangladesh. In the clip, the woman claimed she wanted to return to her home in Khulna. BSF used the footage to press BGB to accept the people it wanted returned to Bangladesh.
In the BGB statement, the force mentioned that it had stopped three people from entering Bangladesh at the Jadabpur border near 24 Parganas and Nadia. It said 17 people were turned back at the Karmudanga border near South Dinajpur, and another 21 at the Barkhata and Payashottibari border near Dhubri in Assam, while seven more were stopped at the Dighaltari border near Cooch Behar.
India has 2,860 deportation requests pending
On Friday, India’s External Affairs Ministry, spokesman, Randhir Jaiswal, told a weekly briefing that New Delhi had asked Dhaka to expedite verification of a list of suspected Bangladeshis to facilitate their deportation. “All foreign nationals in India, if they are here illegally, including those from Bangladesh, we have laws to deal with them, and they will be dealt with accordingly,” Jaiswal said.
According to reports, India has sent a list of 2,860 people to Bangladesh to verify their nationality and to deport them back to their country. There has been a voluntary reverse migration of people, said to be Bangladeshis, to the neighbouring country in the last three weeks after the new BJP government in West Bengal said it would follow the “detect, delete, and deport” policy, and detained 400 undocumented migrants in the state.
“As far as the deportation of these people is concerned, there is a bilateral mechanism in place. And once we refer these cases to the Bangladeshi side, for them to verify, then we take forward the deportation process,” the spokesperson said to a specific question on the undocumented Bangladeshis.
“We have several or many of these requests, which are still pending with the Bangladeshi side. And we hope and expect that they will be expedited soon, as soon as possible, so that the deportation of people who are illegally staying in India can be taken forward smoothly and efficiently,” he added.
