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  "path": "/partner/india-migrant-fear-bangladesh",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-12T08:29:02.000Z",
  "site": "https://nukta.com",
  "textContent": "\n\n\n\nIndia's accelerating campaign to expel undocumented migrants is stoking fear in Bangladesh's border communities, where residents worry that unchecked deportations could trigger violence.\n\nUnder Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has stepped up efforts to remove illegal migrants, a drive critics say unfairly targets Bengali-speaking Muslims. Rights groups say the pressure intensified after Modi's Hindu-nationalist party won control of West Bengal state last month.\n\n#### What is driving India's migrant evictions along the Bangladesh border?\n\nIndia's deportation campaign has escalated since the BJP won West Bengal, which shares a 4,096-kilometre border with Bangladesh. The state government has established detention centres and claims to have expelled nearly 5,000 people it describes as \"Bangladeshi infiltrators.\" Rights groups say the push lacks due process and disproportionately affects Bengali-speaking Muslim communities.\n\nThe two countries share one of the world's most porous borders, with communities on either side so closely intertwined that crossings, legal or otherwise, have been common for generations. Borderland communities predate the 1947 partition of British India. Along some stretches, family networks straddle both sides, and some homes have their kitchen in Bangladesh and their courtyard in India.\n\nMany residents in the border region lack the documentation to prove citizenship, authorities acknowledge, largely because of poverty, low awareness and a long history of informal movement across the frontier.\n\n#### How is Bangladesh responding to the deportations?\n\nBangladesh has pushed back firmly, refusing to accept migrants whose nationality cannot be verified. Bangladeshi border guards have increased patrols and are broadcasting warnings via loudspeaker that nobody may enter without verification. Since June 5, guards have thwarted at least 35 attempts by Indian authorities to force migrants across the border, a Bangladeshi spokesman told AFP.\n\n\"We are willing to accept our citizens once their nationality has been verified by both countries, but we are not taking unidentified nationals,\" said Mahmudul Hasan, a regional border commander. \"Rules must apply even to undocumented people.\"\n\nWest Bengal police official Subrata Saha insisted that Indian authorities only hand over deportees after confirming they crossed the border illegally and hold Bangladeshi nationality. India's Border Security Force declined to comment.\n\n#### What are the humanitarian conditions at the India-Bangladesh border?\n\nHumanitarian concerns are growing along the zero line, the narrow buffer zone separating the two countries. Women and children have reportedly spent days stranded there, relying on local villagers for food and water. Viral videos show frightened families huddled near border fences while Indian and Bangladeshi personnel argue over responsibility.\n\nAt a hospital in Satkhira, Mohammad Mohiuddin described being struck by Indian guards as he attempted to cross a lake into Bangladesh. \"They hit me in the eye with the butt of a rifle and shot me,\" he told AFP. \"I don't deserve such cruelty.\"\n\nRice farmer Mohammad Ismail Hossain, 66, speaking from the Khulna-Jessore border region, said the situation was deteriorating fast. \"No one seems to be verifying anything. They are pushing people in, left, right and centre,\" he said. He warned that if the situation escalates, it could lead to armed conflict.\n\n#### How are families being torn apart by India's deportation campaign?\n\nThe deportations have separated families in ways that human rights groups say are causing lasting harm. At least 20 Bangladeshi children were repatriated in May while their parents remained jailed in India on illegal entry charges, according to police and rights organisations.\n\nAmong them was 14-year-old Sumi Khatun, who said she and her younger sister were separated from their family after being detained a year ago. Sumi was born in India to Bangladeshi parents but lacks documents to prove it. \"My father's grave is in Delhi, my mother and brother are in jails in different cities in India, and my sister and I are in Bangladesh,\" she said.\n\nA.B.M. Mohid Hossain of the non-profit Justice and Care said many villagers do not view illegal border crossings as criminal, given the deep historical and family ties between the two sides. \"Some people cross in search of work because they have family members on the other side,\" he told AFP.\n\n#### Could Rohingya refugees also be pushed across the Bangladesh border?\n\nRights groups have raised alarm that India could use the same deportation mechanisms to push Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh. Bangladesh already hosts more than one million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, one of the largest such populations in the world, and the economic and social strain is severe.\n\nThe Rohingya, who are predominantly Muslim, have been displaced from Myanmar for decades and largely lack documentation. Advocates fear that, in the current political climate, they could be swept up in India's broader crackdown on undocumented migrants and forced across the border without verification.",
  "title": "India migrant evictions spark fear in Bangladesh border towns as deportations accelerate"
}