30 Bangladeshi nationals who were lodged in Assam jails for illegally entering India were deported back to their country through Kalibari ghat border in Assam’s Karimganj district on Thursday.
According to the reports, these 30 Bangladeshi nationals, including 3 women, had illegally entered India without valid documents. They were kept in various detention centres in Assam after the local courts convicted them of illegal immigration.
Karimganj Superintendent of Police, Manavendra Debroy said, “In all 30 people were deported back to Bangladesh. They were sent back in groups of 5 after completion of formalities and handed over to Bangladesh authorities.”
Illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are different from ‘declared foreigners’ who are kept in detention centres for their inability to prove they are Indian citizens. Those deported today were ‘convicted foreigners’ who entered India without valid documents.
They were imprisoned in detention centres inside jails in Cachar, Kokrajhar, Tezpur, Goalpara and Jorhat districts of the northeastern state. There are about 6 detention centres in Assam where people who are declared foreigners by foreigners’ tribunals are kept.
The decision to send back 30 Bangladeshi nationals comes on the heels of Home Minister Amit Shah’s declaration that not a single illegal immigrant and infiltrator will be spared and the government will be committed to identifying and deporting each one of them.
Sources claim there are 60 more Bangladesh nationals lodged in various detention centres convicted of illegally crossing over into India from Bangladesh. In the past too, the government had deported back illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Last July, 52 of them were deported back while in January this year, another 21 were sent back to Bangladesh.