'Detect, Delete, Deport': Bengal Opens First Illegal Migrant 'Holding Centre' In Malda

The BJP government in West Bengal on Monday put into action its “detect, delete and deport” policy, with Malda emerging as the first district to establish a holding centre for suspected illegal foreign nationals. Nine people said to be Bangladeshi nationals have been lodged at the facility so far. Located at Chandan Park in English Bazar, the holding centre is currently the only such facility in Malda district. According to senior police officials, the centre became operational after nine persons, three women and six minors, were brought there from the Pandua area of Gazole on Sunday under tight security arrangements.The facility has been placed under layered security cover with CCTV surveillance, deployment of 12 police personnel, civil defence

staff and civic volunteers, along with arrangements for food and upkeep, an officer said.Another police officer in Malda said the facility has been created to temporarily accommodate foreign nationals detained on charges of illegal entry or lack of valid documents.“The holding centre has started functioning. At present, nine Bangladeshi nationals are being housed there. Necessary verification and legal procedures are being carried out. The detainees are being treated in accordance with prescribed legal norms,” the officer told PTI.The development comes barely two days after the state Home and Hill Affairs Department’s Foreigners’ Branch directed all district administrations to establish “holding centres” for “apprehended foreigners” and “released foreign prisoners awaiting deportation or repatriation”, giving institutional shape to one of the BJP’s most politically resonant themes in Bengal.Though framed as an administrative exercise linked to Union government guidelines issued last year, the move appeared to indicate that an issue long used by the BJP in campaign speeches and border rallies had now entered the machinery of governance.

How will the deportation process unfold?

Last week, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced that infiltrators detained by state police would be handed over directly to the BSF for deportation instead of being routed through prolonged legal processes. At a meeting with senior BSF officers where land was handed over for fencing work along stretches of the Bangladesh border, Adhikari indicated that the state’s anti-infiltration agenda had entered the implementation phase.He had maintained that those outside the purview of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act would be treated as illegal entrants.“Those who are outside the purview of the CAA are infiltrators and will be arrested by the state police and handed over to the BSF,” Adhikari had said.Under the proposed mechanism, the BSF would coordinate with Border Guards Bangladesh for deportation formalities, the officials said. The holding centres now appear to be emerging as one of the first visible administrative structures under that framework. The mechanism also appeared linked to the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, enacted by Parliament last year. The law replaced multiple earlier legislations governing immigration, registration and foreign nationals and introduced a more technology-driven structure for surveillance, detention and deportation, the officials said.The legislation also empowered police personnel of head constable rank and above to arrest, without a warrant, individuals suspected of violating immigration requirements.

What has the MHA said?

The state’s latest directive referred to a Union Home Ministry communication laying down procedures for dealing with Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingyas found residing illegally in India. Under the framework, suspected illegal entrants can be housed in such facilities for up to 30 days while their nationality and documents are verified.District magistrates or officers of equivalent rank would take the final call on citizenship determination.The process also envisages the collection of biometric data, uploading records to central databases and eventual transfer of identified illegal immigrants to border security authorities for repatriation.However, a subsequent exemption order issued by the Union government insulated certain minority communities – Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian – from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan from prosecution if they had entered India before December 31, 2024, citing religious persecution.(With PTI inputs)