386 'undocumented immigrants' in West Bengal detention await deportation to Bangladesh: Report
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Amid an intensified crackdown on allegedly illegal immigration and heightened border security, India is planning to repatriate 386 “undocumented immigrants", including women and children, to Bangladesh.
The “undocumented immigrants” have been held across West Bengal since Monday, The Hindustan Times reported on Friday.
They were sent to 13 detention centres across eight bordering districts before their deportation to Bangladesh, the report adds citing officials aware of the matter.
West Bengal’s newly elected Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, whose Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) administration swept to power in the recent state assembly elections, announced immediate steps after his first cabinet meeting to enforce the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and deport those excluded from its purview, labelling them "illegal Bangladeshis".
On May 21, Dhaka said the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) is on maximum alert to prevent any illegal push-ins.
An Indian police officer told the newspaper that the highest number of detainees, around 335, is at three centres in Basirhat.
Another 19 are in Murshidabad, nine in Malda, and eight in South Dinajpur.
Last week, the new West Bengal government announced the centres in all districts across the Indian state in line with an electoral promise.
Suvendu warned “undocumented immigrants” on Tuesday to leave at the earliest, or the government would do the “needful”.
“Are they our in-laws that the country [India] would have to pay for their food, clothes, and medicines?”
About Suvendu’s aggressive stance on deportations, Bangladesh Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed on May 21 said: “This is entirely an internal matter of India.
“Their CAA or Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC) are their own domestic laws concerning their citizens. We have no room to comment on that," he said.
Tags: India, Illegal immigrants, Deportation, West Bengal, Detention centres, CAA, NRC, Border Guard Bangladesh, BJP government, Suvendu Adhikari.