West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday said that 4,800 alleged undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh who are not eligible for citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act have been deported in the past month, The Hindu reported.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said that 836 more “illegal infiltrators” who are currently in holding centres will soon be deported to Bangladesh.

The holding centres were ordered to be set by the state government on May 22 for alleged undocumented immigrants and for released foreign prisoners awaiting deportation or repatriation.

“There is a law of the government of India under which they [undocumented immigrants] can be handed over to the Border Security Force instead of being sent to prisons,” The Hindu quoted Adhikari as saying on Sunday. “This law was used by other states, but [in West Bengal], they were treated as guests and lodged in prisons, fed our food, given our clothes and treated with our medicines.”

The chief minister noted that the new BJP government, in its first cabinet meeting, approved the transfer of land to the Border Security Force so that it could carry out border fencing, The Telegraph reported.

“Border security is our top priority,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “That is why we have handed over nearly 100 km of land to the BSF for fencing work out of 556 km required.”

Ahead of the elections, the BJP had accused the former Trinamool Congress government of failing to allocate land for border fencing, even as the TMC had alleged that the Border Security Force was unable to prevent infiltration into the country.

Adhikari’s statement came two days after Bangladesh claimed that it had thwarted attempts by India’s Border Security Force to force at least 30 persons into its territory through four border points on June 4 and June 5.

On June 3 as well, Bangladesh had similarly claimed that it foiled 10 attempts within 24 hours by India to force persons across the border into its territory.

Since the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam in April 2025, the police in several states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party have been detaining Bengali-speaking persons – mostly Muslims – and asking them to prove that they are Indian.

Several persons have been forced into Bangladesh after they allegedly could not prove their Indian citizenship. In some cases, persons who were mistakenly sent to Bangladesh returned to the country after state authorities in India proved that they were Indians.

Scroll has also reported on several cases of persons who were forced into Bangladesh being brought back to India, as the authorities had failed to follow the process laid down by the Union home ministry for such deportations.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

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