HRW raises alarm over India’s forcible expulsion of Bengali Muslims to Bangladesh
New York: Human Rights Watch (HRW) has voiced concern over reports that Indian authorities are forcibly expelling ethnic Bengali residents, mostly Muslims living in West Bengal, toward Bangladesh without due process, terming the practice a grave violation of fundamental human rights.
According to Kashmir Media Service, in a report published on its website, the international rights watchdog said many of those targeted are long-term residents and are being detained or deported without adequate legal safeguards.
“Indian authorities are cruelly dumping families into Bangladesh or leaving them stranded at the border, ignoring their basic human rights,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, Deputy Asia Director at HRW. “The government should stop unlawfully expelling people, ensure procedural safeguards, engage with Bangladeshi authorities to verify citizenship, and end this dismaying animosity toward Muslims.”
The report revealed that the Bangladeshi Border Guards has foiled 21 attempts by India’s Border Security Force (BSF) to push more than 200 people, including children, into Bangladesh’s border districts since 1 June 2026.
HRW interviewed nine witnesses who described BSF personnel bringing groups of people to the border at night and pushing them through “cuts in the barbed wire fencing.”
The report noted that following the BJP’s election victory in West Bengal in March, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said that his government has detained hundreds of ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’ and forced nearly 5,000 people to leave under his “detect, delete and deport” policy.
HRW also highlighted concerns over a controversial voter list revision conducted ahead of the elections, which reportedly removed more than nine million names. An Indian activist told the organization that around 400 people are currently being held in detention centers near the West Bengal border, adding that exclusion from voter rolls has increasingly become a basis for arrest, detention and expulsion.
The rights group further pointed to remarks by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who recently stated that Bengali-speaking Muslims were being taken to locations near the border and “literally pushed” across into Bangladesh.
HRW emphasized that India is bound by its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to protect the rights of all individuals within its jurisdiction. It warned that abandoning people without food, water, or shelter could amount to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
The organization also noted that expelling or stranding children violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which obligates states to respect children’s right to preserve their nationality.
“No one, whatever their nationality, should be left to spend nights in an open field between two lines of armed border guards,” Ganguly said. “India should end these brutal expulsions, and both governments should ensure that border management never again comes at the cost of basic human dignity.”
