Odisha says it has deported 49 ‘illegal Bangladeshis’ since May
As many as 49 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants have been deported from Odisha since May, with cases registered against two of them for forging passports, the state government has said.
Informing the state assembly in a written reply, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said Monday that a special task force has been constituted by the state government to take action against illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators. SPs of various districts have also been asked to intensify the drive against undocumented migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar, the minister said.
This comes amid the state government’s crackdown on “illegal” immigrants on orders from the Ministry of Home affairs. The detentions have been a political flashpoint in the past, with West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s TMC objecting to the “harassment” of Bengali-speaking migrants.
Verification of 1,768 suspected people has been completed, of which 1,667 have been allowed to go after they were identified as Indians. Verification of 50 more people is currently underway in different districts.
The chief minister said the state government has constructed two detention centres at the state level and 18 more holding centres at the district level. While suspected cases are detained at the holding centres till completion of verification, the state-level detention centres are used to house identified Bangladeshi infiltrators until their deportation.
According to official sources, the 49 persons who have been deported so far were identified from Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur and Kandhamal districts.
The chief minister informed the assembly that his government has been regularly following up the identification of illegal infiltrators with police in various districts, while work is also being done in coordination with central agencies like the Intelligence Bureau.
Senior police officers have been asked to visit districts with the most suspected cases, especially in the northern and coastal regions, and coordinate with agencies from the Union government and neighbouring states, the CM told the House.
At least nine Bengali-speaking migrant workers with West Bengal address proof were recently detained by police in Odisha’s Bhadrak district as part of a crackdown on “illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingya”.
In the last week of November, at least four people of an “organised racket” were arrested by police in Jagatsinghpur district on charges of harbouring illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The administration also demolished structures owned by the accused, stating they were illegally built on government land.
In March, the state government had informed the assembly that Odisha has 3,740 undocumented migrants from Bangladesh. Officials, however, estimate that the actual figure is higher.
