Hundreds of Muslims unlawfully expelled to Bangladesh from India: HRW

Indian authorities have expelled hundreds of ethnic Bengali Muslims to Bangladesh in recent weeks without due process, claiming they are "illegal immigrants," Human Rights Watch said today (24 July). 

Many of them are Indian citizens from states bordering Bangladesh, says HRW. 

Since May 2025, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government has intensified operations to expel ethnic Bengali Muslims to Bangladesh, ostensibly to deter people from entering India without legal authorization, reads a report of HRW. 

"The government should stop unlawfully deporting people without due process and instead ensure everyone's access to procedural safeguards to protect against arbitrary detention and expulsion," said HRW.

"India's ruling BJP is fueling discrimination by arbitrarily expelling Bengali Muslims from the country, including Indian citizens," said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The authorities' claims that they are managing irregular immigration are unconvincing given their disregard for due process rights, domestic guarantees, and international human rights standards."

Human Rights Watch interviewed 18 people in June, including affected individuals and family members in 9 cases. Those interviewed include Indian citizens who returned to India after being expelled to Bangladesh and family members of those who were detained and are still missing. On July 8, Human Rights Watch wrote to India's Ministry of Home Affairs with our findings but received no response.

The Indian government has provided no official data on the number of people expelled, but Border Guard Bangladesh has reported that India expelled more than 1,500 Muslim men, women, and children to Bangladesh between 7 May and 15 June, including about 100 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. The expulsions have continued.

Authorities in the BJP-run states of Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, and Rajasthan have rounded up Muslims, mostly impoverished migrant workers, and turned them over to Indian border guards. In some cases, the border guards allegedly threatened and beat the detainees to force them to cross into Bangladesh without adequately verifying their citizenship claims. The Indian government has had to readmit dozens of people who eventually proved their Indian citizenship, reads the report.

The crackdown followed a deadly attack by gunmen against Hindu tourists in Jammu and Kashmir in April. Police started harassing Muslims, refused to accept their citizenship claims, and seized their phones, documents, and personal belongings, leaving them unable to contact family members. Some of those apprehended said Indian Border Security Force (BSF) officials threatened and assaulted them, and in a few cases, forced them to cross the border at gunpoint. 

Khairul Islam, 51, an Indian citizen and former schoolteacher from Assam state, said that on May 26, Indian border officials tied his hands, gagged him, and forced him into Bangladesh, along with 14 others. "The BSF officer beat me when I refused to cross the border into Bangladesh and fired rubber bullets four times in the air," he said. He managed to return two weeks later. 

Irregular migration from Muslim-majority Bangladesh to India has gone on for decades, but there is no accurate data and figures are often inflated for political purposes. Senior BJP officials have repeatedly labeled irregular immigrants from Bangladesh as "infiltrators" and used the term more broadly to demonize Indian Muslims to gain Hindu political support. 

Several BJP-run state governments started rounding up Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant workers after the Ministry of Home Affairs in May set a 30-day deadline for states to "detect, identify, and deport illegal immigrants" and told local authorities to "establish adequate holding centers in each district to detain" them. The Ministry of External Affairs said it had sent the names of over 2,360 people to Bangladeshi authorities to verify their nationality.

On 8 May, Bangladesh's Foreign Ministry wrote to the Indian government calling these "push-ins" – an apparent reference to collective expulsions – "unacceptable," and saying that they would "only accept individuals confirmed as Bangladeshi citizens and repatriated through proper channels."

In May, Indian authorities also expelled about 100 Rohingya refugees from a detention center in Assam across the Bangladesh border. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that the authorities forced another 40 Rohingya refugees into the sea near Myanmar, giving them life jackets and making them swim to shore in what the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar, Tom Andrews, called "an affront to human decency." 

Andrews said the incident was also "a serious violation" of the principle of nonrefoulement, the international legal prohibition against returning people to a territory where they face threats to their lives or freedom. 

The Indian Supreme Court refused in early May to block deportations of Rohingya refugees, saying that if they are found to be foreigners under Indian law, they must be deported. On May 16, in response to the account of Rohingya forced into the sea, the court said there was no evidence to support these allegations, claiming this was a "beautifully crafted story." However, the Indian government has not denied the allegations.

India is obligated under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination to ensure the protection of everyone's rights and to prevent deprivation of citizenship on the basis of race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin. 

India's detention and expulsion of anyone without due process violates fundamental human rights, Human Rights Watch said. The Indian government should ensure access to fundamental procedural safeguards for anyone subject to expulsion. This includes access to full information about the grounds for deportation, competent legal representation, and an opportunity to appeal a decision to expel.

The authorities should ensure that security forces and border guards do not use excessive force and should impartially investigate alleged misuse of force. Those responsible for abuses should be appropriately disciplined or prosecuted. People detained for expulsion should have access to adequate food, shelter, and medical facilities, and authorities should address the specific needs of marginalized groups, including women, children, older people, and people with disabilities.

"The Indian government is putting thousands of vulnerable people at risk in apparent pursuit of unauthorized immigrants, but their actions reflect broader discriminatory policies against Muslims," Pearson said. "The government is undercutting India's long history of providing refuge to the persecuted as it tries to generate political support."

Unlawful and discriminatory expulsions of refugees, migrants 
Indian authorities claim they are expelling people who entered India illegally from Bangladesh. While dozens of people expelled have indicated that they are Bangladeshi nationals, many have said they are not. Lack of due process has meant that many Indian nationals – mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims – have been unlawfully expelled.

Bangladesh authorities have repeatedly said that the Indian government's unilateral actions violate established repatriation procedures and urged Indian authorities to "follow transparent, verifiable processes to address these cases in line with international standards." 

At least 300 of those expelled come from Assam state, which underwent a contentious citizenship verification process in 2019 that was arbitrary and flawed, and excluded nearly two million people. 

Many of the others are Bengali Muslims who migrated from India's West Bengal state to Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Delhi in search of work.