Published on 6/13/2026
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Last update: 23:11 (Mecca time)
A campaign launched by the government of the Indian state of West Bengal, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, to track down and deport Bangladeshi immigrants, has raised widespread concerns among Muslim immigrants and Indian Muslims in the state, amid accusations that the measures target them under the title of combating illegal immigration.
The campaign carries the slogan “Exposure, Delete and Deport”, and came in implementation of one of the most prominent promises of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the West Bengal elections, where it presented the Bangladeshi immigration issue as a security and demographic issue.
After the party came to power for the first time in a state with a population of more than 100 million people, the government announced the establishment of detention centers in various provinces in preparation for the deportation of those it describes as “illegal infiltrators” to Bangladesh.
The procedures accelerated in the second half of May, after the state government ordered the establishment of detention centers for undocumented Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya refugees.
The first of these centers began operating on May 25 in Malda and Murshidabad provinces, before the campaign expanded to other border areas.
Activists say that the Bharatiya Janata Party links immigration and religion, especially since the state’s procedures exclude groups protected under the Citizenship Amendment Act, a law that grants a path of protection to non-Muslim religious groups from neighboring countries, and does not include Muslims.
The deportation campaign comes in a state where Muslims constitute about 27% of the population, making it highly sensitive politically and religiously.
Fears of a repeat of the Assam experience
Fears increased in West Bengal after a similar experience occurred in the neighboring state of Assam in the summer of 2025, when security services forcibly deported dozens of Indian Muslims across the border into Bangladesh, accusing them of being illegal immigrants.
India shares a land border with Bangladesh that extends 4,096 km, which is one of the longest land borders in the world. The two countries are linked by historical, cultural and linguistic ties, especially in the regions of West Bengal and Assam, where poor workers have crossed the border for decades in search of better job opportunities.
Bangladesh returned these people to the Indian side, leaving them temporarily stranded in a buffer zone before later allowing them to return to India.
Human rights organizations fear that these incidents will be repeated in West Bengal, with the expansion of the campaign of arrests and deportations, and the absence of sufficient guarantees to prevent the deportation of Indian citizens or the targeting of individuals because of their religious identity.
Thousands of detainees
During the past two weeks, the authorities arrested thousands of people across West Bengal, transferred some to detention centers, and took others to border points in preparation for their return to Bangladesh.
State Prime Minister Suvendu Adhikari said – in statements he made to reporters in Calcutta – that the authorities had deported about 5,000 Bangladeshi citizens, adding that his government had established detention centers in all districts of the state.
Adhikari explained that the authorities deported 4,800 “Bangladeshi infiltrators” from these centers, while 836 people are still detained awaiting arrangements for their deportation.
At the Hakimpur border point, located about 80 kilometers from Kolkata, a police officer working there told Al Jazeera English that between 250 and 300 undocumented refugees and migrants arrive at the border point daily.
He added that the authorities verify their nationalities and record their biometric data to create a digital record of the numbers of immigrants.
Warnings of religious targeting
Human rights organizations criticized the campaign, warning of the lack of adequate legal guarantees for detainees.
Eileen Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera English that she was very concerned about the situation in West Bengal, adding that undocumented detainees should have legal representation so that no Indian citizen is wrongly expelled from the country.
Pearson described the deportations as “illegal”, amid fears that quick procedures would lead to serious errors, especially in areas where linguistic and cultural identities overlap across borders.
Human rights activist Teesta Setalvad also told Al Jazeera English that the Indian authorities are “acting according to a previous agenda and rhetoric” against a certain group.
She added that the police randomly arrest people, place them in detention centers, and try to forcibly return them “as if they were a commodity.”
Critics believe that the party targets Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh and Rohingya more than other refugees hosted by India, such as Tibetans or Sri Lankan Tamils.
New tension between New Delhi and Dhaka
The campaign sparked new diplomatic tension between India and Bangladesh, as relations between New Delhi and Dhaka had deteriorated after the 2024 uprising in Bangladesh, which ended the rule of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a close ally of India, and forced her to seek refuge in New Delhi.
Dhaka says repatriation operations must be carried out according to official nationality verification mechanisms.
Bangladeshi Foreign Affairs Advisor Shama Obaid said – in a press conference in Dhaka – that her country sent 13 letters to New Delhi regarding this issue, warning that the campaign may affect bilateral relations.
The dispute between the two countries does not only revolve around deportation, but also its mechanism. While New Delhi says it refers the names of those suspected of being Bangladeshis to Dhaka to verify their nationality, Bangladesh accuses the Indian authorities of trying to push people across the border without clear legal or diplomatic procedures.
The Bangladeshi Border Guard announced that since June 4, it had thwarted at least 18 attempts by the Indian border security forces to bring about 180 migrants into Bangladesh across the border.
Dhaka describes these operations as “illegal push” across the border, while New Delhi says it deals with illegal residents according to the law.
Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said that there is a “bilateral mechanism” in place between the two countries, and that the Indian authorities are referring the cases to the Bangladeshi side to verify nationality before starting deportation procedures.
After the accusations escalated, the border guards of the two countries held a 4-day meeting in New Delhi, which ended with an agreement to enhance the exchange of information and coordinate patrols on the border.
