Intensifying the crackdown against illegal Bangladeshi migrants, the Delhi Police is learnt to have traced 1,589 such people in the Capital, who were later deported via the Agartala-Bangladesh border, in the nine months from June 2025 to February this year.
This is a sharp increase from the previous seven months, between November 2024 and May 2025, when 720 illegal Bangladeshi migrants were learnt to have been traced in the Capital and sent back.
The drive started in November 2024, following directions from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to verify, identify, and detain illegal Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya refugees.
According to data shared by the Delhi Police with the MHA, about 220 illegal Bangladeshi migrants were detained between November 15, 2024, and April 20, 2025. They were handed over to the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO), taken by rail and road to eastern states, and sent to Bangladesh via land borders.
The drive was stepped up after the terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22 last year, following which around 500 illegal Bangladeshi migrants were traced and deported in a month.
According to the data, between June 2025 and February this year, 1,589 illegal Bangladeshi migrants and 55 Rohingya were detained by the Delhi Police, and handed over to the FRRO. They were later deported via land borders, a senior Delhi Police officer said.
Data shows that in 2025, the maximum number of detentions were made from Delhi’s Outer district area (386), followed by 287 from South-East, 249 from North-West, 194 from North, 191 from South, 183 from Outer-North, 168 from South-West, 140 from Central, 148 from West, 118 from East, 99 from Dwarka, 80 from Shahdara, 71 from Rohini, 57 from North-East, and 20 from New Delhi.
Explaining the increase in numbers, a senior Delhi Police officer said police got crucial leads about their locations. “The team in Outer district got to know that most of them were working as labourers in brick kilns situated in the border areas of Haryana and Rajasthan. We traced their contractor and those involved… Later, teams conducted searches and nabbed all the illegal Bangladeshi migrants,” the officer said.
Initially, Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) across the 15 police districts led the verification drives. The detainees were escorted by a Delhi Police team and FRRO officials via train to West Bengal, then by bus to the Border Security Force (BSF) posts.
However, after the Pahalgam terror attack, they were “airlifted in phases from Hindon air base in Ghaziabad to Agartala for deportation,” a senior officer said, adding that “multiple special flights from Hindon have dropped off the 1,589 Bangladeshi migrants since then”.
Multiple FIRs were also filed by the district police, Crime Branch and Special Cell to probe networks facilitating illegal entry, fake documents, address proofs, jobs and accommodation in Delhi. Several chargesheets have also been filed.
The MHA is learnt to have instructed police chiefs across States and Union Territories to enhance vigil along the borders to check illegal immigration. The matter was also discussed at the DGP-IGP conference in Raipur in November last year.
According to data shared by the Delhi Police with the MHA, about 220 illegal Bangladeshi migrants were detained between November 15, 2024, and April 20, 2025. (Express Photo/Pragynesh) 
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