West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday directed all district magistrates to set up “detention centers” for illegal immigrants arrested before they are deported, fulfilling the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) election promise to “detect, delete and deport” all foreigners.
The Foreigners Branch, SAARC Visa Division, under the state Home Ministry headed by Adhikari, issued an order stating that detention centers should be set up after the May 2025 order of the Union Home Ministry.
“Attached herewith is the aforesaid letter regarding the procedure to be followed for deportation of Bangladeshis/Rohingyas apprehended for illegally residing in this country,” said the state order addressed to the district magistrates, a copy of which has been seen by HT.
“In this regard, appropriate initiative/action is requested to establish detention centers in the area for detained foreigners as well as for released foreign prisoners awaiting deportation/repatriation in accordance with the aforesaid MoHA guidelines,” the brief order said.
The move comes days after Adhikari made the announcement following a meeting with senior officers of the Border Security Force (BSF) and state police officers where he handed over land for setting up fences along a 27-km stretch of open space on the Indo-Bangladesh border.
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In the May 20 meeting, Adhikari ordered a crackdown on illegal Bangladeshi migrants and asked the state police to detain them and hand them over to the Border Security Forces for deportation.
“On May 14, 2025, the Center sent a directive to the state to hand over illegal Bangladeshi migrants to the Border Guards for deportation. The previous state government not only ignored the directive but also opposed the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA),” he said, referring to the new law granting expedited citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India to escape religious persecution.
“Those who are not covered by the CAA are completely illegal immigrants. The state police will detain them and hand them over to the Border Security Forces. The Border Security Forces will coordinate with the Bangladesh Border Guards and deport them. Detect, delete and deport them,” Adhikari said.
The BJP made infiltration a major issue in the recently held state assembly elections. All the leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, launched scathing attacks against the erstwhile Mamata Banerjee administration for not handing over land to the Border Security Forces for setting up fences.
The India-Bangladesh border is 4,096 km long, passing through West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. West Bengal shares about 2,216 km of this border, which is the longest distance between any Indian state and a neighboring state.
Before the elections, in which the BJP won 207 of the 294 seats in Bengal against the Trinamool Congress’ 80, the saffron camp claimed there were more than a million illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingya from Myanmar.
The BJP’s tally on Sunday rose to 208 after it swept the by-election in Valta in South 24 Parganas district.
None of the TMC leaders commented on the state home department order till Sunday afternoon.
In 2025, the detention of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in various BJP-ruled states, on suspicion of being illegal Bengali migrants, sparked a political row. Then CM Mamata Banerjee claimed that these arrests came in the wake of a notification secretly issued by the Center only to those states. A number of detainees were deported, but legal battles brought them back.
