India Deports Nearly 5,000 Bangladeshi Citizens in One Month

Indian authorities have deported nearly 5,000 Bangladeshi nationals since the Hindu nationalist party, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gained power in West Bengal last month. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a landslide victory in the recent elections in West Bengal, an eastern border state with a population exceeding 100 million. The party campaigned on a promise to “detect, remove, and deport” illegal migrants.

India shares a long and sensitive border with Muslim-majority Bangladesh, where migration has historically been driven by economic hardship and long-standing familial ties. Following its ascent to power, the new West Bengal administration ordered the establishment of detention centres for undocumented Bangladeshi citizens and Rohingya refugees fleeing persecution in Myanmar.

State Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, speaking on Sunday (7/6) local time, stated that almost 5,000 Bangladeshi citizens have been deported. “We have commenced the work of deporting Bangladeshi intruders who do not fall under the scope of the Citizenship Amendment Act,” said Adhikari. He added that the government established holding centres across all districts of the state last May.

“From these centres, 4,800 Bangladeshi intruders have been deported so far,” he added, as reported by AFP news agency on Monday (8/6/2026). “Another 836 individuals are currently in the holding centres… we are making arrangements to deport these 836 people immediately,” Adhikari noted.

The deportation campaign is taking place amidst long-standing political tensions regarding immigration in the border state. High-ranking Indian officials have referred to migrants as “termites” and “intruders.”

Critics argue that the BJP’s rhetoric and policies have increased unrest and the marginalisation of India’s more than 200 million Muslims, accusing the party of conflating religious identity with illegal migration. Relations between India and Muslim-majority Bangladesh have worsened following the 2024 revolution in Dhaka, which ended the autocratic rule of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina—an ally of the Indian government—who subsequently fled to India. While a new government was elected in Dhaka in February and relations have slowly begun to improve, the border situation remains a significant political issue.