New Delhi: Illegal migration is increasingly being treated as part of India’s wider national security framework, with border forces, district police, immigration authorities and intelligence agencies expected to work in a more coordinated manner. Union home minister Amit Shah’s latest emphasis on detecting and deporting illegal migrants is the clearest sign yet of that approach.
Shah, while inaugurating the two-day National Security Strategies Conference in New Delhi on Monday, directed agencies to take “strict measures against infiltration”. More than 850 participants attended the conference, including senior home ministry officials, deputy national security advisors and heads of central armed police forces (CAPFs), while police chiefs from states and Union territories joined virtually.
Illegal migration was discussed alongside counterterrorism, Pakistan-backed proxy warfare, narcotics and cybercrime, as well as intelligence fusion through the Multi-Agency Centre (MAC). Shah also called for artificial intelligence-based analysis of information available on MAC platforms to help develop standard operating procedures for emerging security threats.
Border management to local policing
The conference came two days after Shah reviewed security in the strategically critical Siliguri Corridor, the narrow stretch connecting mainland India with the northeast. The meeting included officials from the Union home ministry, Army, Border Security Force and Sashastra Seema Bal, besides the West Bengal government.
According to the ministry, demographic changes, illegal immigration and border-related issues were specifically discussed. Shah asked agencies to take steps to stop illegal immigration in the corridor, while the MAC’s Standing Focus Group presented its assessment and recommendations.
The same approach was visible at the Land Border Districts’ Superintendents of Police Conference in July. Shah called for an integrated security grid linking border guarding forces with state and district administrations and central agencies. The threats discussed included infiltration, proxy warfare, radicalization, narcotics trafficking, drones, organized crime and demographic changes.
The legal framework also gives local authorities a central role. Under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, powers relating to detection of foreigners staying illegally, restriction of their movement and deportation have also been entrusted to states and Union Territories. In an April Rajya Sabha reply, the home ministry said such cases were being handled by local police authorities on a continuing basis.
A wider security push
The migration focus comes amid a series of high-level security reviews this year. In June, Shah chaired an Amarnath Yatra security review attended by national security advisor Ajit Doval, the Army chief, Intelligence Bureau director and Jammu & Kashmir Police chief, besides heads of CAPFs. The meeting called for a multi-layered security grid backed by drones, CCTV and advanced monitoring systems.
Doval also chaired the BRICS National Security Advisors’ meeting in New Delhi in June, where emerging technologies, cybersecurity and counterterrorism cooperation figured prominently. The recurring theme across these meetings has been closer coordination between intelligence agencies, security forces, technology platforms and local police.
That coordination has also been tested operationally. On August 17, the home ministry said agencies had disrupted an alleged Pakistan-based, ISI-backed Shahzad Bhatti Network after coordinated operations across 14 states. It said 253 people were detained during operations on August 12, with more than 200 arrests recorded in cases linked to the network. The operation was separate from illegal-migration enforcement but underlined the Centre’s push for faster intelligence sharing across jurisdictions.
How many have been deported?
A consolidated nationwide figure remains unavailable. When Parliament sought state-wise numbers of illegal immigrants arrested and pushed back over the previous five years, the Centre did not provide a single national total. The home ministry said detection and deportation are continuing processes handled by local authorities.
State-level figures, however, indicate the scale. In Assam, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told the assembly in July that 172,673 illegal immigrants had been detected under the Assam Accord framework. Of them, 31,789 had been repatriated, while 73,759 cases involving suspected illegal immigrants were pending before Foreigners Tribunals and 174 declared foreigners were lodged at the Goalpara transit camp.
Delhi Police data reported by the Indian Express showed that 1,589 Bangladeshi nationals identified as illegal migrants were deported between June 2025 and February 2026. Police have also investigated networks allegedly involved in arranging fraudulent documents, jobs and accommodation for people who entered illegally.
The figures underline the central challenge: detection and deportation are not the same process. Identification has to be followed by nationality verification, legal proceedings where required and acceptance by the receiving country.