Salim Gaji is a Bangladeshi national who entered India two years ago after allegedly paying touts to cross the border. Since then, he had been living and working in West Bengal without any documents. But on Tuesday, he was among hundreds of Bangladeshis gathered at the Border Security Force’s (BSF) Hakimpur check post in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district, hoping to leave India.
The trigger was the newly-formed BJP government in West Bengal directing district magistrates to set up holding centres for undocumented immigrants ahead of deportation, in line with its poll promise to “detect, delete and deport” illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and Rohingyas.
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This is the second such large movement of Bangladeshis returning to their country. The first was in November 2025, when the SIR exercise began in Bengal. At the time, thousands of Bangladeshis had gathered outside BSF posts, a senior officer told HT. In the past two days, the numbers of Bangladesh wanting to cross order has increased again.
Another woman, 48-year-old Nusrat Bibi from Jessore, said she and her husband had come to India a few years ago, where he worked as a mason. “Now we are going back. The government would have anyhow sent us back had they caught us,” she said.
‘CM Suvendu wants no illegal Bangladeshis in Bengal’
{{/usCountry}}Another woman, 48-year-old Nusrat Bibi from Jessore, said she and her husband had come to India a few years ago, where he worked as a mason. “Now we are going back. The government would have anyhow sent us back had they caught us,” she said.
‘CM Suvendu wants no illegal Bangladeshis in Bengal’
{{/usCountry}}The BJP had fought the Bengal elections on a promise to free the eastern state from illegal migrants who had crossed over from Bangladesh. The new Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari, soon after being sworin in, reiterated that those identified as Bangladeshi nationals should leave India voluntarily.
“They should leave. They are Bangladeshis. Their government should accept them. We have instructed the police that they shouldn’t be sent to jails. Are they our in-laws that the country would have to pay for their food, clothes and medicines? Leave at the earliest. Else the government would do what needs to be done,” Adhikari told reporters after an administrative meeting in Nadia district.
Soon, the officials were directed to follow orders. The border check posts are now seeing hundreds of Bangladeshis, who worked for years in different parts of Bengal, ready to move back to their country of origin.
(With inputs from Joydeep Thakur)