India

BJP govt in West Bengal deports 5,000 Bangladeshis

Bangladeshi migrants who had allegedly illegally crossed border, arrive for verification near the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) camp at Hakimpur on the outskirts of Kolkata on May 28, 2026. Hundreds of people in India’s border region with Bangladesh have fled to the frontier, police said on May 27, after the government ordered the construction of detention centres for undocumented Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya refugees. (Photo by Dibyangshu SARKAR / AFP)

Kolkata: The newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party government in the Indian state of West Bengal has intensified its crackdown on Bangladeshi nationals and has arrested and deported nearly 5,000 Bangladeshis.

According to Kashmir Media Service, the Hindutva BJP won the elections in the border state of West Bengal last month. After assuming power, it started a crackdown on Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingya refugees who migrated from Myanmar and ordered the establishment of detention centers for them.

According to official figures, about 5,000 Bangladeshis have been deported, so far.

State Chief Minister Suvindu Adhikari, while talking to the media in Kolkata, said that centres were set up in all districts of the state during May, from where 4,800 Bangladeshis have been sent back across the border, so far.

He said that another 836 people are currently in detention centres and they will also be deported soon.

These operations are being carried out at a time when relations between India and Bangladesh have been tense since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government in Dhaka in 2024 and her flight to India.

Human rights organizations have accused India in the past of pushing Bengali-speaking Muslims to Bangladesh without proper legal action. KMS—22A

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