Bengali migrants under fire as police step up vigil against illegal refugees

Ahna Prakash & Hameed Ashraf | NT
Bengaluru

Bengali migrants who come to Bengaluru in search of better job opportunities often get mistaken for being illegal Bangladeshi refugees and sometimes face police harassment.

Twenty-eight-year-old Sujeet, who migrated from Kolkata in 2018 and works at a construction site near Kengeri, has been one such victim. He said, “The police would visit our working sites and randomly enquire about us and ask if we are from Bangladesh. Even after showing them our IDs, they won’t believe us. Last year a police officer from Kengeri police station hit my brother and me, saying that we should go back to our country.”

This is not an isolated case and many others had to undergo such harassment. On Monday, the Hebbagodi police reportedly barged into garbage segregation units in Shikari Palya run by Bengalis on June 17 and 18. They assaulted the residents there in order to make them leave the city.

In their complaint to the Human Rights Commission, two victims, Rabbani Sardar, 52, and Anees, 38, hailing from Murshidabad, stated that during the police raid their properties were damaged. “The police were hell bent on proving that we are not Indian. They destroyed our food stocks and threatened women and children,” the complainants said.

Bengaluru is estimated to have more than three lakh migrant workers, with about 70 per cent of them being from states like Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, and other parts of North India. The last census and migration data stated that Bengaluru city is home to almost 44.3 lakh migrants, i.e., nearly 50.6 per cent of the overall population. Among them, Bengali migrants often get mistaken for being Bangladeshis and are often denied fundamental rights.

Cases of police harassment are more rampant in case of Bengali Muslims.

What the police say:

The city police claim that illegal Bangladeshi refugees are a major problem in Bengaluru, with numerous cases of crime and violence directly linked to their presence. They said that in such situations, differentiation of Bangladeshi Muslims and Bengali-Speaking Muslims is ‘virtually impossible.’

The police also said that several hate-mongers have been protecting those who have infiltrated the city illegally and are posing a threat to its citizens. Recently, a software engineer and a pharmacist were arrested for allegedly providing ID proofs such as Aadhaar cards and driving licences for illegal immigrants.

In yet another operation, Karnataka police nabbed a 27-year-old Bangladeshi Muslim woman, Roni Begum, who lived on the city outskirts, allegedly under the assumed name Payal Ghosh for 15 years.

This fraud came to light when her father died in Bangladesh. Begum had to fly to Dhaka to attend the funeral. The immigration officials became suspicious and confiscated her passport. During subsequent inquiry, it was found that she was an illegal Bangladeshi refugee.

A couple of months back, Bengaluru police raided an illegal Bangladeshi human trafficking network in the city, and arrested eight Bangladeshi women from a Women’s PG accommodation in Banaswadi. All these cases highlight the problem of Bangladeshis unlawfully residing in the country and getting involved in crime networks.

This sometimes even affects bona fide people hailing from West Bengal, city police said. A senior police official from the Anugondanahalli police station in Bengaluru Rural denied intimidation of the migrant population. He said the identity of each and every migrant worker and their family members were being reviewed to see whether they are residents of India. When it is found that they are illegal refugees, the applicable provisions of the Foreigner’s Act are enforced, he added.