Hundreds of undocumented Bangladeshi nationals — mostly Muslims — gathered near the Hakimpur check post along the India-Bangladesh border on Tuesday, desperate to cross back into Bangladesh before the new BJP government in Bengal intensifies its crackdown on illegal immigration.
The rush to the border, 75km from Calcutta in North 24-Parganas' Basirhat subdivision, came after the Bengal government announced plans to establish “holding centres” in every district to detain undocumented foreign nationals — a visible early signal that the BJP intends to aggressively pursue its long-promised “3D policy” of Detect, Delete and Deport.
Since late Monday night, men, women and children arrived at the Hakimpur border point with bags, blankets and trolleys, hoping the Border Security Force (BSF) would push them back across before arrests began.
“The government has changed in Bengal,” said Rabi Sardar, who had been living in Durganagar with his family for around five years without valid documents. “Before facing harassment or detention, we decided to return to Bangladesh and begin a fresh struggle for survival.”
The scenes at Hakimpur offered one of the clearest visible signs yet of the political and administrative shift since the BJP assumed power under chief minister Suvendu Adhikari. Throughout the election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and Suvendu repeatedly vowed zero tolerance against undocumented Bangladeshi Muslim nationals and Rohingya immigrants allegedly residing illegally in the state.
Speaking after an administrative meeting in Kalyani on Tuesday, Suvendu made no attempt at diplomatic language. “Jaldi jaldi bhago, nahin toh jo karna hai sarkar karega (Leave fast, else the government will do what is necessary),” he said. “Why should we share our food, homes and resources with foreigners?”
BSF officials had not officially disclosed the number of those gathered at Hakimpur by Tuesday evening. Police personnel arrived at the spot to record details and coordinate with border forces.
Sources said the state government was exploring direct pushback measures in consultation with Bangladeshi border authorities.
So far, the Bangladesh authorities have accepted one migrant. “Bangladesh will take action if push-in incidents occur amid the change of power in West Bengal,” Bangladesh foreign minister Khalilur Rahman had said in a social media post that the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) shared on its official Facebook page on May 5, a day after the BJP swept the elections in Bengal.
The scenes recalled the panic triggered earlier by the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, when thousands of suspected undocumented migrants — mostly Muslims — were allegedly identified and many were pushed back through the same Swarupnagar border point. For many of those now at Hakimpur, the SIR had already been the first warning.
“My father fled after his name was struck off during the SIR exercise,” said Nayan Sardar, 25, a construction labourer from Metiabruz. “I have no documents at all. Had the Trinamool government remained in power, we would never have thought of leaving like this.”
Senior police officers said the crackdown was also being projected as a national security exercise in the aftermath of the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, after which the Union government launched coordinated operations against undocumented migrants across multiple states. The simultaneous tightening of border surveillance, document scrutiny and the preparation of holding centres have accelerated the exodus of people who had spent years working in Bengal as domestic helps, construction labourers and daily-wage earners.
“Life in Bangladesh was miserable. Now life has become uncertain in India too,” said Beauty Mondal, 33, a domestic worker from Bangladesh’s Molladanga area who had entered India three months ago. “I am being forced to return with my children and face that misery again.”
Holding centres have already become operational in Malda and parts of Murshidabad, including Lalgola, as the state government prepares for a sustained drive along Bengal’s porous international border. The state home department has issued guidelines to all district administrations in line with Union home ministry directives.
The Trinamool Congress, which had long denied the BJP’s claims of large-scale infiltration and fiercely opposed the SIR exercise, now finds itself watching from the Opposition benches as the policy it resisted is rolled out at speed. A BJP leader in Basirhat noted that many undocumented migrants had initially begun returning after the Centre hardened its messaging, but slowed down expecting Trinamool to retain power. “That calculation changed after the election results,”he said.
For the BJP, the queues at Hakimpur are proof of a claim it has made for years. For those sitting in those queues with children and plastic packets, it is something more immediate: the collapse of a life quietly built, and an uncertain road home.