India Intercepts Thousands of Bangladeshi Migrants With Fake Documents

Dealing with Bangladeshi migrants has become one of the major issues in several Indian states, primarily in the East. India does not keep records of Bangladeshi citizens, with many sneaking into the country during the 1971 war with Pakistan.

Indian immigration officials have intercepted 2,399 Bangladeshi nationals with fake Indian documents across various border check posts from 2017-2022, India's Home Ministry revealed on Tuesday.

Nityanand Rai, India’s minister for home affairs, said that government authorities record biographic and biometric details of the illegal migrants upon identifying them.

“The central government issued an instruction to state governments for taking appropriate prompt steps for the identification of illegal migrants and their restriction to specified locations as per provisions of law,” Rai added.

There have been conflicting claims over the current number of Bangladeshi migrants in India.

In 2016, the government said that there were about 20 million illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in India, but it did not divulge any evidence. Four years later, then-Minister for Home Affairs G. Kishan Reddy claimed that if India offered citizenship to Bangladeshis, half of Bangladesh would empty.