Rena (not her real name), 23, spent half an hour trying to soothe her 11-month-old son, using all her newfound maternal qualities. She needed milk and some clothes to keep the baby warm, but she was more than 250 kilometers away from her home near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Raina has been held at a makeshift detention center in Hakimpur on the India-Bangladesh border.
The time is from 10 to 11 pm. Reena and four other women were brought to the unit by a Border Security Force (BSF) patrol near the Hakimpur border about three hours ago when they were caught trying to illegally cross into India.
According to officials, Hakimpur in West Bengal's North24 Paragana district is one of the vulnerable areas along the Indo-Bangladesh border and along the Sonai river that separates India from Bangladesh, exposing it to extensive cross-border Invasion. The river is less than 100 meters wide, even narrower in places, and is covered in large patches of water hyacinth over long distances, making it nearly impossible for security forces to patrol.
Lina and four other women sat on the floor of a dimly lit room with a washroom in one corner, their faces covered with dupattas and scarves covering their faces except for their eyes. The room's walls had been eroded, and there was a grilled metal door and a window. The concrete floor was cold and cracked in places, suggesting the room might have had another purpose, but also as a temporary detention center when “illegal intruders” like Reyna and others were apprehended at the border.
At the iron door of the room, a female official sat on a chair, interrogating the women one by one and writing down their origins in a register.
“The agent asked me to pay Rs 10,000”
Rena was still busy taking care of her baby, waiting for her turn. To her right is Tamina (not her real name) leaning against the wall. Wearing a black scarf and a yellow robe, Tamina comes from Dashana, an industrial town in southwestern Bangladesh.
Tamina decided to make a living as a maid after her husband divorced her a year ago. “You can't make a lot of money in Bangladesh. And conditions are not good right now, with almost no opportunity to earn a good salary. I heard that women who left Bangladesh to work in India were doing well financially.
Explaining how she came here, she said: “I contacted an agent through social media and he asked me to pay Rs 10,000. In exchange for the money, they promised that I would be taken to India once I arrive in Kolkata and an agent from India will help me get documents and find a job. The money will be paid after I arrive in Kolkata,” she said.
Narrating her journey, the 22-year-old said she took a bus from Darshana and reached a village near the border. There she met a man, claiming to be the agent's assistant, who drove her in a rickshaw to a border village in Bangladesh. From then on, she and the man, who she claims did not reveal his identity to her, walked to the Sonai River through an area lacking Bangladesh Border Guard (BGB) surveillance.
Since Tamina couldn't swim, the man found a banana tree trunk and threw it into the river. Tamina then grabbed onto the tree trunk and floated across the body of water while the man swam with her. About an hour later, when they reached the Indian side, the man left her and disappeared into the woods, she said.
However, all Tamina's efforts and determination did not end well. She was spotted by the BSF team soon after and after a brief questioning she was eventually admitted to a detention centre.
Outside the room where Tamina, Reena and others were rescued is a courtyard managed by the BSF. Some of the cows tethered in the yard were rescued from cattle smugglers, one of the major problems on the India-Bangladesh border.
A little further away, there is a guard post, and less than 200 meters further is the international border.
The border between India and Bangladesh is not fully fenced and is long without any barriers, making it easy for cattle smuggling, drug traffickers, arms exchange and human trafficking to take place. In some areas, especially in northern Bengal, there are villages located outside the fence, even in some parts of Bangladesh. This further made the movement of locals from one side to the other untraceable by security forces from both sides.
“My wife and daughter are waiting for me”
There was another room next to the room where the detained women were sitting. A man in his thirties sat on the mattress. Two officers sat on two chairs next to him and asked about his whereabouts.
It turned out that the man was an Indian but was caught illegally smuggling into India from Bangladesh. “I am Indian. My wife is Bangladeshi. I went to meet her. I crossed Tripura-Bangladesh border and successfully crossed the border without getting caught. My wife and nine months The eldest daughter traveled to India with the appropriate visa, but as I was unable to manage the documents, I was crossing the border illegally when I was arrested,” he said.
The man, a stocky man wearing a baseball cap, T-shirt and jeans, said he had paid 15,000 taka (Bangladeshi currency) to an agent he met through a shopkeeper in his wife's village. of.
He was taken to the Benapole border in an auto-rickshaw and they swam across the river where he was caught soon after.
He met his wife on social media and married her last year. She came to Bangladesh to give birth and now the couple plans to stay in India.
“I was promised that I would be taken to the train station from where I could continue my journey. As I had done before, I did not suspect the agent, but he got me into trouble. I don't know how to get out of this situation. The agent also took my cell phone. My wife and daughter were waiting for me at the nearby train station from where we were going back home, but now I couldn't even tell them my situation.
Incursion attempts increase after Bangladesh violence: BSF official
Among the Indian states, West Bengal shares the longest border with Bangladesh. Although the issue of Bangladeshis infiltrating into India is not a new phenomenon, officials say the situation has intensified since August 5, when Bangladesh was experiencing political unrest.
“Since the situation in Bangladesh changed, we have seen a multiplication of intrusion attempts. Many Bangladeshis who wanted to take refuge in India had to return from the border due to lack of necessary documents. We have also caught several people trying to cross into India illegally. We Most people questioned said they crossed the border for better livelihood and security,” said a senior official of the Border Security Force, which secures the India-Bangladesh border.
The BSF forms the first line of defense of national security and they are tasked with maintaining strict vigilance and not allowing infiltration, the official added. “Given the vulnerability of these people, they have the potential to be misused. There are multiple criminal groups in the border areas engaged in smuggling, human trafficking and other criminal activities. From a security perspective, the India-Bangladesh border is very sensitive,” he said.
They should not be treated as criminals: human rights campaigner
Kirity Roy, secretary of the human rights NGO Banglar Manabadhikar Surakhsha Mancha, which has been working to improve the lives and rehabilitate Bangladeshi migrants in West Bengal, said the problem started since the creation of East Pakistan .
“Infiltration is not new because when the country was divided to divide East Pakistan, many people were left on this side but their families went to the other country. Their villages, houses, families still live here. Bangladesh's The jails are also filled with infiltrators from India. It's a two-way problem,” he said.
Roy says these people don't deserve to be treated like this. “The government needs to understand that these people do not need to be considered criminals. Neither the judiciary nor the police are adhering to international missions, so social problems have not been solved. Previously, religion was the main factor, but today the main reason is to find a better Good life. These are poor people and we need a humanitarian approach to this problem,” he added.
