New Delhi, Aug 11 : Post Operation Sindoor, the Indian government decided to take stringent action against illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. Data collected by the various state governments states that the highest number of illegal immigrants is from Bangladesh, followed by Myanmar and Pakistan.

The security agencies say that the number of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh is alarming, and they have in many places changed the demographics. A dossier prepared by the security agencies explains the modus operandi of these illegal migrants.

It also speaks about the routes and the loopholes they have been using over the years to avoid deportation. The main entry points into India are through Chapali, Malda, Murshidabad, 24 Paraganas, and Dineshpur. Based on this data, security has been heightened at these entry points.

Adding to the problem of the security agencies is the ongoing crisis in Bangladesh. Consequently, more attempts are being made by Bangladeshis to flee and enter India.

In addition to curbing illegal migration, there is also a major crackdown on the touts who facilitate such activity. The network of the touts is a massive one. They have close to 50 to 100 agents in all states where these illegal migrants are sent.

While the job of the tout is to facilitate the infiltration, the agents are tasked with providing them work and also ensuring, without fail, that these persons return to the state from which they have been issued an Aadhaar Card and Voter ID.

The maximum number of these identification documents is issued in West Bengal, Assam, Mizoram, and Bihar. Getting back to these states at the time of an election is mandatory, and if one of them fails to do so, their documents are taken back, after which they are sent back to their home country.

The touts charge anything from Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 for these documents to be made. They are hand in glove with many within the administration to ensure that there are no hiccups while preparing these documents.

Before being sent to another state, depending on the demand, they are instructed to say that they are from Assam and not any other state. This has led to them being referred to as Assam Labour in every state.

Further, they are instructed not to talk much and mingle much with the locals. They are told to stay together all the time.

In Kerala, it has been found that these Bangladeshis who enter the state take refuge at the Bengali Colony. They prefer this place since their dialect is very similar to that of the Bengalis. This helps them blend with the population, the security agencies have learnt.

There have been many drives in the past to weed out the problem. However, these persons have found a loophole to dodge the system. It has been noticed that many people are, in fact, happy when a case is registered against them. They get bail easily as the courts have not found the offence to be grave.

Further, the crowding of jails is also something that courts prefer to avoid. The other loophole in the law is that once a case of this nature goes to court, these people cannot be deported until the case is decided. Such cases are lowest on the priority list of the courts, and owing to huge backlogs, these cases take years to decide.

These are the loopholes that have made the deportation process extremely tricky and hard. It has also been found in many cases that those persons who are deported return to India. Once deported, they stay in their home country, following which they return and then obtain a new identity.

Due to these loopholes, the government has begun pushing back undocumented Bangladeshi migrants who have been detained across the country. In 2024, 295 Bangladeshis were deported, and this year the number stands at 100 as of data available until April 2025.

The other problem is that this is part of a larger conspiracy that dates back to those days after the Liberation War. The ISI had roped in the Jamaat-e-Islami to carry out large-scale infiltrations into India. The idea was to change demographics, snatch local jobs, commit crimes, and create communal tension.

According to Amar Bhushan, who served in the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), a nexus between the ISI and Bangladesh's Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) was flagged by his agency in the 1990s. The idea was to use the Jamaat to carry out this massive infiltration drive to destabilise India.

With the new regime in Bangladesh that is friendly with Pakistan, this problem can only worsen, he warns.

If one looks at the data prepared by the NCRB, it states that the highest crimes committed by foreign nationals are by Bangladeshis. They had the highest share at 24.5 per cent, followed by Nigerians (5.5 per cent), Nepalese (3.3 per cent), and Myanmarese (2.3 per cent).

Many governments are now setting up Special Task Forces to tackle this problem. The Tamil Nadu government said that it would be setting up a Special Task Force to deport Bangladeshis and Rohingyas staying without valid documentation. This is a decision part of a nationwide operation launched by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to identify and deport illegal immigrants.

The MHA had recently written to the Chief Secretaries of all states to establish a Special Task Force under the supervision of the police to detect and deport foreign nationals staying without valid travel documents.

/IANS