The crackdown on Bangladeshis and Rohingya refugees in Gurgaon has stoked fears of persecution, prompting Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant workers from Bengal and Assam to return to their home states.
Most of these migrant workers from Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia and South Dinajpur in Bengal, and Assam live with their families in slums. Men work as labourers, janitors in MNCs, ragpickers, sanitation workers and delivery agents while women work as domestic helps in the nearby highrises.
Anjum Khatun, 60, said she had been living in constant fear after her son was picked up by Gurgaon police last week from her rented home on the suspicion of being a Bangladeshi and kept at a “detention centre” for two days. Originally from Malda, she has been living in Millennium City for 25 years and possesses ration, voter, Aadhaar and PAN cards.
“They are branding us Bangladeshis because we are Muslims and speak Bengali. We are Indians and possess all valid documents to prove our citizenship, but the police did not listen to us and picked up my son and kept him at a detention centre for two
days before releasing him,” Anjum said.
“We have been forced to go back to our village in Malda. It has become a crime to be a Muslim and Bengali in Modi’s India,” she added.
Farooque from South Dinajpur said the police had been regularly visiting the slums for the past week and rounding up male residents.
“Every night, we fear the cops will come knocking on doors, asking for documents. But even after people show valid documents, they are taken away in vans,” he said.
“They are keeping them for 4-5 days at the detention centre and beating them up. In most cases, men in plainclothes are arriving in cars without number plates and taking the male members away. We do not know whether they are cops or not. We are scared and have locked ourselves in our homes. Our kids have stopped going to school,” he said.
Farooque said he and his friend had already packed their bags and would soon leave Gurgaon.
According to reports, over 400 families from Gurgaon have already left for Bengal and Assam in groups.
Sources in Gurgaon Police said over 300 individuals from Bengal, suspected to be illegal migrants, had been detained and sent to four holding centres in the city and their documents were currently being verified. Around 20 illegal immigrants, suspected to be from Bangladesh, have been identified during the drive so far and will be deported soon.
“We are following the Centre’s guidelines on suspected illegal immigrants. We are not detaining them, they are being kept in ‘holding areas’ till the verification process is completed. Accordingly, we are letting them go,” Gurgaon deputy commissioner of police (headquarters) Arpit Jain said.
“The only purpose of keeping them in the holding area is to ensure no illegal immigrant escapes,” he said, adding that four holding areas had been set up in as many police zones in Gurgaon.