India asks Bangladesh to expedite deportation list verification

The Ministry of External Affairs' spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Thursday said with a large number of Bangladeshi nationals in India required to be deported, it asked Dhaka to verify their nationality.

The MEA urged Bangladesh to expedite the verification process, saying foreigners who are staying in India illegally, whether they happen to be Bangladeshis or nationals of any other country, will be dealt with as per law.

“We have a pending list of... upwards of 2,360 cases of people who require to be deported. Many have actually completed their jail sentences. In many cases, nationality verification needs to be done. It is pending since 2020,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.


“Almost five years have passed. So, we urge the Bangladeshi side that they must expedite the verification process,” he added.

Recently, the Border Security Force (BSF) and Tripura Police arrested 16 Bangladesh nationals and five Indians from different places of the state for illegally crossing the India-Bangladesh border.

A BSF spokesman said that vigilant border guarding troops deployed in the area of Manu Border Outpost (BOP) under West Tripura district apprehended nine Bangladeshi nationals, including four women and two children, while they were trying to illegally cross over to the neighbouring country.

The apprehended Bangladesh nationals were illegally working in private organisations in Agartala for around two years.

In a separate incident, the BSF seized contrabands, including foreign cigarettes worth Rs 50 lakh from Srinagar in south Tripura district on Wednesday.

Tripura Police on Thursday detained five Bangladesh nationals, including two women, for illegally entering Indian territory by crossing the international border at the Madhupur area of Sepahijala district.

A police officer said that in the wee hours on Thursday, acting on secret input and with the help of local villagers, police apprehended five Bangladesh nationals near Madhupur village close to the India-Bangladesh border. They are now being interrogated at the police station.

The BSF detained another Indian national after he illegally entered Tripura from Bangladesh. This man, a resident of Tripura, also went to the neighbouring country earlier without any valid passport or documents.

Tripura, has an 856 km border with Bangladesh.