Dozens of people identified by authorities as illegal Bangladeshi migrants gathered near the Border Security Force’s Hakimpur checkpoint in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district on Tuesday, apparently seeking to cross into Bangladesh, officials familiar with the matter said.
The development comes days after the newly elected BJP government in West Bengal directed district magistrates to set up detention centers for illegal migrants before deporting them, in line with its election promise to “detect, delete and deport” illegal Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya.
About 100 people gathered to cross the border
Police officials said about 100 people had gathered near the border crossing by Tuesday evening.
“The first wave was much bigger. At that time thousands gathered. The second wave started on Tuesday. So far, we have reports of only about a hundred Bangladeshis gathering outside the border guarding checkpoint,” a senior Basirhat district police officer told HT.
What did the Prime Minister say?
Prime Minister Suvendu Adhikari said those found to be Bangladeshi citizens should leave the country voluntarily.
“They must leave. They are Bangladeshis. Their government must accept them. We have instructed the police not to send them to prisons. Are they our relatives whose food, clothes and medicines the country will have to pay for? Leave as soon as possible. Otherwise, the government will do what needs to be done,” Adhikari told reporters after an administrative meeting in Nadia district.
The second wave of immigrants
Officials said this is the second such wave of illegal Bangladeshi migrants gathering near the Hakimpur crossing point. In November 2025, thousands gathered at the same place after the launch of the Special Intensive Review (SIR) in the state.
“The government is pressuring us to leave.”
Several people waiting near the crossing told local media that they had lived and worked in different parts of West Bengal for years before deciding to return to Bangladesh.
A Bangladeshi national who requested anonymity said: “I returned two years ago. I was staying in Dum Dum Cantonment. I come from Satkhira district in Bangladesh. If the government wants us to leave, what can we do? That’s why I’m leaving.”
“I was working as a mason in Barasat. I crossed into India and paid money to some traders about two years ago. I don’t have any documents. The government is pressuring us to leave. That’s why I’m leaving,” Salim Jaji, a resident of Satkhira, told local reporters.
Another woman, Nusrat Bibi, 48, from Jessore, said: “We came to India a few years ago. My husband worked as a builder. Now we are going back. The government would have sent us back anyway if they had caught us.”
Adhikari ordered the police to identify undocumented Bangladeshi migrants, detain them and hand them over to the Border Patrol for deportation.
A Border Guard official from the South Bengal border said movement towards the border first increased in November, then declined earlier this year and then rose again over the past two days.
