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India has list of 2,300 Bangladeshi illegal migrants, asks Dhaka to verify their nationality
External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the nationality verification of these people by Bangladesh has been pending for almost five years
NEW DELHI: India said on Thursday it has asked Bangladeshi authorities to verify the nationality of more than 2,300 illegal migrants believed to be from the neighbouring country so that they can be deported.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a weekly media briefing that the verification of the nationality of many of these people by Bangladesh has been pending for almost five years.
“We have asked the Bangladeshi side to verify their nationality. We have a pending list of 2,369 of people who are required to be deported,” he said while responding to a question about Indian authorities pushing back illegal migrants from Bangladesh through land borders.
“Foreigners staying in India illegally, whether they happen to be Bangladeshi nationals or any other national, they will be dealt with as per law. We have a large number of Bangladesh nationals here who are required to be deported,” he said.
“Many of them have actually completed their jail sentences, and in many cases, the nationality verification is pending since 2020. So almost five years have gone by. We would urge the Bangladeshi side [to] expedite the verification process so that people who are required to be deported can be sent back to Bangladesh,” Jaiswal said.
Reports in the Bangladeshi media said a total of 109 people have been pushed back into Bangladesh by Indian authorities through eight border districts since Wednesday night. Many of these people had been living in different parts of India’s Gujarat state, the reports said.
Earlier this month, Indian authorities had pushed back another 300 people into Bangladesh through land borders.
The development comes at a time when India-Bangladesh relations are at an all-time low. The Indian government has repeatedly taken up the repression of Bangladesh’s religious minorities with the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, which has described reports of atrocities as exaggerated. India last week restricted imports of ready-made garments from Bangladesh only to Kolkata and Nhava Sheva ports and barred imports of a range of consumer goods through 13 land border posts in the northeast and West Bengal in response to restrictions adopted by Dhaka.
