Undocumented Bangladeshis make desperate bid to return home
The Statesman | 7 June 2025
As diplomatic tensions simmer between India and Bangladesh following a political shift in Dhaka, a silent exodus has begun from the margins of India’s informal workforce. With mounting pressure from police crackdowns and identity checks, undocumented Bangladeshi nationals — who for years formed an invisible backbone of cheap labour across Indian states — are making desperate attempts to return home. Many are failing.
In Cooch Behar district, a group of 16 Bangladeshi nationals, including five men, five women, and six children, surrendered to the police after failing to cross the border, which is now under heightened surveillance by the Border Security Force (BSF). The group hailed from Bangladesh’s Rangpur and Kurigram districts and had entered India nearly a decade ago, working in brick kilns in Haryana and Gurgaon ever since.
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“We came for work and stayed for years,” said one of the men. “But now the police are checking identity papers everywhere. We have none. It’s no longer possible to survive here. We had no option but to surrender.”
They first approached Dinhata police station earlier this week, disclosed their identities, and sought assistance to return to Bangladesh. In accordance with legal protocol, the police registered a case of illegal infiltration and transferred them to Cooch Behar Kotwali police station. The group has since been remanded to judicial custody.
This isn’t an isolated case. Since 29 May, more than 60 undocumented Bangladeshi nationals — many with women and children — have reached Cooch Behar in hopes of slipping across the border undetected. Most were intercepted and arrested, unable to evade the tightening net of law enforcement agencies.
Just this Monday, police apprehended another group of 16, including four women and six children — at Falimari railway station, a known transit point for cross-border migrants. They had lived and worked in the Naoda area for the past five years before deciding to return home. Their plan to cross the border via New Cooch Behar and Falimari ended in arrest.
A week earlier, a group of 28 Bangladeshi nationals, 11 men, 8 women, and 9 children, was picked up near Dinhata railway station after being spotted loitering and appearing visibly distressed. Local residents alerted authorities, leading to their detention.
“They admitted they had no documents and had entered India illegally in search of work,” said Krishna Gopal Meena, additional superintendent of police, Cooch Behar. “They were arrested and produced before court under charges of illegal infiltration. Investigations are underway.”
The latest wave of surrenders reflects growing unease among undocumented migrant communities, particularly Bengali-speaking workers, who fear being targeted in the wake of stricter surveillance and public suspicion in states like Haryana, Punjab, and Delhi.
But beyond the arrests and identity checks lie deeper structural challenges. Officials admit that porous border stretches — including areas like Sitalkuchi and the Tin Bigha Corridor — remain vulnerable due to the presence of cross-border trafficking routes and the peculiar geography of Bangladeshi enclaves like Dahagram and Angarpota within Indian territory.
For many of these families, the journey to India had been one of desperation, fleeing poverty in search of survival. Now, the road back appears just as uncertain. Split families, detained parents, and children with no legal identity are becoming the human face of a quiet, slow-moving crisis unfolding along the border.
As law enforcement does its job, questions remain about what happens next for those stranded between two nations — with no papers, no protection, and nowhere to call home.