India has pushed hundreds of ethnic Bengali-speaking Muslims into Bangladesh without due process, Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated on Thursday, accusing the government of flouting regulations and fostering religious bias. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government has consistently adopted a stringent stance on immigration, particularly regarding individuals from neighboring Muslim-majority Bangladesh, often referring to them as “termites” and “infiltrators.”
Critics further accuse the government of instilling fear among India’s estimated 200 million Muslims, especially those who speak Bengali, a widely used language in both eastern India and Bangladesh. HRW, a New York-based nonprofit, reported, citing Bangladeshi authorities, that India forcibly expelled over 1,500 Muslim men, women, and children to Bangladesh between May 7 and June 15.
Elaine Pearson, HRW’s Asia director, commented, “India’s ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is fueling discrimination by arbitrarily expelling Bengali Muslims from the country, including Indian citizens.” She added, “The Indian government is putting thousands of vulnerable people at risk in apparent pursuit of unauthorized immigrants, but their actions reflect broader discriminatory policies against Muslims.”
New Delhi maintains that those deported are undocumented migrants. However, Pearson found the authorities’ claims that the expulsions were to manage illegal immigration “unconvincing” due to “their disregard for due process rights, domestic guarantees, and international human rights standards.”
‘They Were Holding Guns’
HRW indicated it had submitted the report’s findings and inquiries to India’s home ministry but received no response. The report documented the experiences of 18 individuals. A 51-year-old daily wage worker recounted to HRW that he “walked into Bangladesh like a dead body” after India’s Border Security Force (BSF) took him to the border past midnight. “I thought they (the BSF) would kill me because they were holding guns and no one from my family would know,” the report quoted the worker as saying.
Bangladesh, largely encircled by land by India, has seen its relations with New Delhi sour since a mass uprising in 2024 ousted Dhaka’s government, which was an ally of India. India also intensified operations against migrants following an attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) in April that killed 26 people, primarily Hindu tourists. New Delhi accused neighboring Pakistan of supporting the attack, an allegation denied by Islamabad.
In an unprecedented nationwide security drive, Indian authorities detained thousands, with many eventually pushed across the border to Bangladesh. Pearson asserted, “The government is undercutting India’s long history of providing refuge to the persecuted as it tries to generate political support.” India has also faced accusations of forcibly deporting Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, with navy ships reportedly dropping them off the coast of the war-torn nation.
