India is actively removing individuals it identifies as Bangladeshi immigrants living illegally within its borders. Bangladesh is resisting these efforts, resulting in many people stranded at the border and escalating tensions between the two nations.
Photographs show an Indian border guard patrolling near Hakimpur in West Bengal, highlighting the gravity of the situation.
Journalists Anupreeta Das, Saif Hasnat, and Hari Kumar have been on the ground investigating this matter. Das and Hasnat interviewed border guards and village residents in Bangladesh to understand the impact of forced repatriations. In West Bengal, India, Das and Kumar explored holding camps and spoke to officials about their deportation campaign.
The border between India and Bangladesh is one of the world’s longest, stretching for about 2,500 miles. It has become a route for impoverished Bangladeshis seeking employment and a passage for smugglers trafficking goods, from cattle and gold to raisins.
However, this porous border is now a point of contention. India is intensifying efforts to deport those with Bangladeshi documentation or those suspected of being undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants, often doing so under the cover of darkness. Bangladesh contends that India is bypassing proper repatriation procedures and has bolstered its patrols to prevent further unauthorized crossings.
In one recent incident, Bangladeshi guards detained a group consisting of a man, three women, and a child in Durgapur, a village near the border. These individuals reportedly traveled from West Bengal, India, to Bangladesh on foot by night. They were spotted by fishermen at around 4 a.m.
For an extended period, the group was held in the buffer zone between the two countries while border guards from each side deliberated on their situation. The incident drew a crowd, including Motiar Rahman, a 45-year-old local, who described seeing the group standing on the riverbank, firmly within Bangladesh’s territory.
Rahman and others witnessed Bangladeshi guards accusing Indian authorities of pushing the group — who were without identification documents — towards Bangladesh.