New Delhi: Illegal immigration has emerged as the latest flash point in ties between India and Bangladesh, after the two neighbours have sought to reset and rebuild ties in the last three months. Both sides have gone back and forth with diplomatic notes on the issue, with no signs of movement on the issue, ThePrint has learnt.
Sources say, New Delhi has raised the 2,862 cases pending identity verification with Dhaka. On the other hand, Bangladesh has been waiting for nearly a year for a response from India for a meeting of the consular official mechanism.
On 7 May, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs had publicly raised the repatriation of illegal immigrants as the “main issue” between India and Bangladesh and urged Dhaka’s “cooperation in order to repatriate such individuals to their countries.”
India in its diplomatic note on 30 April highlighted that over 1,000 diplomatic notes had been shared with Bangladesh since September 2020, including at least 450 consolidated reminders, to which Dhaka has not taken any actionable response.
In its response to New Delhi’s diplomatic note, Dhaka on 8 May had conveyed issues over New Delhi’s position in a diplomatic note.
Diplomatic sources informed ThePrint that India’s 30 April note did not include a consolidated list of names, which was highlighted in Dhaka’s 8 May response, along with other process related issues including the difficulty in receiving approvals to verify the nationalities of suspected illegal immigrants held in prisons in parts of the country.
Bangladeshi diplomats in India have had difficulties visiting individuals detained in North Eastern states, as, apart from approval from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, they also require permission from the respective state authorities, and this has often delayed the process.
Dhaka had also in its 8 May response raised other issues on illegal immigration, including the repetition of names on lists when shared by the Ministry of External Affairs for verification, as well as few other grievances, sources told ThePrint.
India raised the issue of the slow verification by Bangladeshi authorities of 2,862 individuals its its 30 April diplomatic note to Bangladesh, a few hours after Indian Acting High Commissioner Pawan Kumar Badhe was summoned by the Bangladeshi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
As ThePrint had reported, Dhaka summoned Badhe to lodge a protest against comments made by Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Chief Minister of Assam describing the state government’s policy of “pushing in” suspected illegal immigrants back into Bangladesh. Sarma had made these comments around 15 April in an interview to ABP News.
Bangladesh had requested a meeting between consular officials in June 2025, a mechanism through which issues surrounding repatriation can be discussed between the concerned officers. However, India till date has yet to respond to the request.
Government sources made it clear that India will respond accordingly when it finds a convenient date for such a meeting to be held. The sense remains that both sides are keen to resume the various bilateral mechanisms on multiple fronts including consular issues, border affairs and water-sharing issues, as New Delhi and Dhaka look to reset the relationship.
Between June 2025 and February 2026, the interim government led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus had been in power in Bangladesh, and ties between New Delhi and Dhaka cratered.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman earlier this month had warned that Dhaka would take “adequate measures” if Indian states continued with the policy of “pushing in” suspected illegal immigrants in their territory.
The repatriation of foreign nationals follows a multi-step process. Individuals who were suspected to have entered the country illegally are detained, and their documents verified by Indian authorities. If they are believed to be from a foreign country, their details are shared with the respective diplomatic missions to start their own verification processes. If proven to be a foreign national, India and the respective country work together to have the said individual repatriated after all formalities are completed.
However, Dhaka also pointed out that while it has issued a number of temporary travel permits to its nationals to return to the country after verification of their nationality, they are rarely informed by Indian authorities whether the individual had been repatriated to Bangladesh. The next round of border talks between India’s Border Security Force and Border Guards Bangladesh is expected to be held soon.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)