Push-ins: India claims they are sending back Bangladeshis held without documents

For the past one month, the Indian government has been pushing back people into Bangladesh. The Indian government now claims they are undocumented Bangladeshi nationals who had previously trespassed into India.

The "undocumented Bangladeshi nationals" were held along the eastern side of the Bangladesh-India border, an Indian government official told The Hindu.

The Indian government claims that 300 undocumented Bangladeshi migrants were airlifted from Gujarat to Tripura and pushed back to Bangladesh via the land border on 4 May.

They also said, at least 1,000 Bangladeshi illegal migrants were detained from Ahmedabad and Surat on 26 April.

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

Yesterday (14 May), Rajasthan's Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Jogaram Patel said about 1,000 suspected Bangladeshi nationals had been identified as residing in different parts of Jaipur.

"The first batch of 148 Bangladeshi nationals was transported to Jodhpur and flown to Kolkata on Wednesday. From there, they will be deported to Bangladesh," 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 Bangladeshi nationals.

Patel said a similar deportation process would be followed for pushing back the foreign nationals in the coming days.

On 10 May, 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," 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 22 April, officials said.

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

Bangladesh urges India to stop push-ins

Meanwhile, the Bangladeshi government has urged India to take measures to immediately stop the push-ins, stressing that this, without due process would undermine mutual understanding between the two countries.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a letter on 8 May seeking due process and urging India to follow established mechanisms, said a diplomatic source today.

Bangladesh said such push-ins fuel negative public sentiment and it would only accept those through proper channels if they are confirmed as Bangladeshi citizens.

Bangladesh also highlighted the importance of peace and stability along the border and noted that such push-ins are unacceptable and should be avoided.

Since 6 May, some 280 individuals have been "pushed into" Bangladesh, an act seen as a violation of international law and bilateral agreements, sparking concerns in Dhaka.

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