Indian authorities have expelled hundreds of ethnic Bengali Muslims – including many Indian citizens, and Rohingya refugees – to Bangladesh in recent weeks without due process, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a recent report, accusing the Hindu-nationalist government of targeting Muslims for political gains.
Although the Indian government has disclosed no official data on the number of people expelled, according to the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), India has expelled more than 1,500 Muslim people to Bangladesh between May 7 and June 15, including about 100 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.
HRW said that the forced expulsion process mainly targets Bengali Muslims, regardless of their citizenship.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has long taken a strong stance against irregular migration. In public speeches around elections, he has often focused on immigrants from Bangladesh, calling them "infiltrators."
However, the report stated that Indian authorities' claims that they are managing irregular immigration are unconvincing given their disregard for due process, domestic guarantees, and international human rights standards.
Human Rights Watch Asia Director Elaine Pearson said, "India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fueling discrimination by arbitrarily expelling Bengali Muslims from India, including Indian citizens.
"The Indian government is putting thousands of vulnerable people at risk in apparent pursuit of unauthorised immigrants, but their actions reflect broader discriminatory policies against Muslims."
Marginalised Bengali Muslim migrant workers targeted
The HRW report further mentioned that since May 2025, the BJP-led Indian government has intensified operations to expel ethnic Bengali Muslims to Bangladesh from several Indian states such as Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, and Rajasthan, claiming they are "illegal immigrants."
HRW interviewed 18 people in 9 cases, including Indian citizens who returned to India after being expelled to Bangladesh and family members of those who were detained and are still missing.
Khairul Islam, 51, an Indian citizen and former schoolteacher from Assam, said on May 26 that Indian border officials tied his hands, gagged him, and forced him into Bangladesh, along with 14 others.
"The Border Security Force officer beat me when I refused to cross the border into Bangladesh and fired rubber bullets four times in the air," he said.
However, Islam managed to return two weeks later.
Like him, the Indian government has had to readmit dozens of people who eventually proved their Indian citizenship.
In Maharashtra, several migrant workers from West Bengal were detained and expelled to Bangladesh, despite being Indian citizens. In Mumbai, at least seven were sent across the border but were later brought back after the West Bengal government confirmed their citizenship.
Another case study was that of Nazimuddin Sheikh's, a 34-year-old migrant worker from West Bengal, who had worked as a mason in Mumbai for five years before being detained on June 9 and expelled to Bangladesh.
He said the police raided his home, seized his mobile phone, and tore up his identity documents, which were proof of his citizenship. They then flew him in a BSF plane along with over 100 others to Tripura state, which borders Bangladesh.
"The [BSF] did not listen to us when we told them we are Indian," he said. "If we spoke too much, they beat us. They hit me with sticks on my back and hands. They were beating us and telling us to say we are Bangladeshi."
The West Bengal chief minister has called out BJP state governments, saying "Is speaking Bengali a crime? You should be ashamed that by doing this, you're making everyone who speaks Bengali appear to be Bangladeshi."
Media reports also highlight that between April and May, authorities in BJP-run Gujarat demolished over 10,000 structures, including homes, businesses, and mosques, without due process in Ahmedabad.
The authorities claimed these structures were in unauthorized settlements where "illegal Bangladeshi immigrants" lived. These arbitrary and punitive demolitions violate a November 2024 Supreme Court ruling that sets out steps the authorities must take before any such actions.
Flawed citizenship verification process
HRW research found there is lack of transparency, are often discriminatory against Bengali Muslims, and violate due process rights.
Once a person is cleared by one Indian tribunal, they can still be brought again before the same or different tribunals. People can be denied citizenship claims if there is a mismatch in the spelling of their names on different documents, for not mentioning certain facts in the written statements, or for minor contradictions in deposition testimony.
In many cases, people do not even get a chance to present their claims in front of the court, which are decided ex parte, i.e., in their absence.
Lawyers in Assam say this is largely because border police fail to carry out proper investigations and serve timely notices on affected people.
Forcible repatriation sparks concern in Bangladesh
In response to this forcible repatriation, Bangladesh's foreign ministry wrote to the Indian government on May 8, calling the deportations "unacceptable" and reiterating that only confirmed Bangladeshi citizens would be accepted through formal repatriation channels.
Rohingya refugees also forced to cross border
An estimated 40,000 Rohingyas live in India, at least 20,000 of whom are registered with the UNHCR. Since 2016, ultranationalist Hindu groups have targeted Rohingya refugees as part of growing attacks on Muslims in India and called for their expulsion from the country.
In October 2018, the Indian government began forcibly deporting Rohingya to Myanmar, putting them at grave risk. Conditions for safe, voluntary, and dignified returns of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar do not currently exist.
In May this year, Indian authorities expelled about 100 Rohingya refugees from a detention center in Assam. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that the authorities forced another 40 Rohingya refugees into the sea near Myanmar, giving them life jackets and making them swim to shore in what the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar, Tom Andrews, called "an affront to human decency."
"India's detention and expulsion of anyone without due process violates fundamental human rights," Human Rights Watch said. "The Indian government should ensure access to fundamental procedural safeguards for anyone subject to expulsion. This includes access to full information about the grounds for deportation, competent legal representation, and an opportunity to appeal a decision to expel."
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