India seeks Dhaka’s help on repatriation of ‘illegal Bangladeshi immigrants’

India on Thursday called on Bangladesh to cooperate on repatriating “illegal immigrants” from India, noting that over 2,862 cases of nationality verification are pending with Dhaka.

At a weekly briefing, India’s Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal clarified New Delhi’s position amid renewed speculations over illegal border push-ins by India following the nationalist BJP’s resounding win in West Bengal provincial elections.

“Our policy is that all illegal foreign nationals staying in India must be repatriated as per our laws, procedure and established bilateral arrangements,” Indian media reported quoting Jaiswal.

“We expect Bangladesh to expedite nationality verification so that repatriation of illegal immigrants can take place in a smooth manner,” he added, according to the reports.

Jaiswal was responding to the question on Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman’s statement following BJP’s win in West Bengal.

Khalilur, when asked about the reports of a “push in” by India’s BSF of individuals into Bangladesh said, “When the Chief Minister of Assam said similar things and admitted he had taken certain actions, you saw that we strongly protested. We will take whatever measures are necessary on that issue.”

Referring to Khalilur’s remarks, Jaiswal said: “We have seen comments of this nature being made in the last several days. These comments must be seen in the context of the core issue of the repatriation of illegal Bangladeshis from India. This obviously requires cooperation from Bangladesh”.