India unlawfully deports Muslims to Bangladesh: HRW

NEW DELHI: India has forcibly expelled hundreds of ethnic Bengali-speaking Muslims into Bangladesh without following due process, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday, accusing the government of violating legal norms and stoking religious discrimination.

The Hindu nationalist administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long maintained a hardline approach to immigration, particularly targeting those from neighbouring Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Senior officials within the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have previously described such migrants as “termites” and “infiltrators”.

Critics say the policy climate under Modi has instilled fear among India’s nearly 200 million Muslims, with Bengali speakers — a linguistic group prominent in both eastern India and Bangladesh — facing disproportionate scrutiny and hostility.

HRW, a New York-based nonprofit, said India forcibly expelled more than 1,500 Muslim men, women, and children to Bangladesh between May 7 and June 15, quoting Bangladeshi authorities.

"India's ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is fuelling discrimination by arbitrarily expelling Bengali Muslims from the country, including Indian citizens," Elaine Pearson, Asia director at the nonprofit, said.

"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."

New Delhi insists that people deported are undocumented migrants.

However, claims by authorities that the expulsions were to manage illegal immigration were "unconvincing", Pearson added, because of "their disregard for due process rights, domestic guarantees, and international human rights standards".

'They were holding guns'

HRW said it had sent the report's findings and questions to the country's home ministry but had received no response.

The report documented the experiences of 18 people.

A 51-year-old daily wage worker told HRW that he "walked into Bangladesh like a dead body" after India's Border Security Force (BSF) took him to the border after midnight.

"I thought they (the BSF) would kill me because they were holding guns and no one from my family would know," the report quotes the worker as saying.

Bangladesh, largely encircled by land by India, has seen relations with New Delhi turn icy since a mass uprising in 2024 toppled Dhaka's government, an ally of India.

India also ramped up operations against migrants in the wake of an attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) in April that killed 26 people, mainly Hindu tourists.

New Delhi accused neighbouring Pakistan of supporting the attack, an allegation denied by Islamabad.

In an unprecedented countrywide security drive, Indian authorities detained thousands, with many of them being eventually pushed across the border to Bangladesh.

"The government is undercutting India's long history of providing refuge to the persecuted as it tries to generate political support," Pearson said.

India has also been accused of forcibly deporting Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, with navy ships dropping them off the coast of the war-torn nation.