Security personnel on the platform as a total of 33 Bangladeshi nationals were deported to West Bengal by the Tiruchirappalli-Howrah SF Express train from Tiruchirappalli railway station in Tiruchirappalli on Friday. The detained Bangladeshi nationals will later be deported from West Bengal to Bangladesh. | Photo credit: ANI
Nearly 33 “illegal” Bangladeshi immigrants who were detained in Tamil Nadu’s Salem district were on Friday (March 20, 2026) loaded on a train to West Bengal, from where they will be sent back to their country.
According to police sources, the Bangladeshi nationals were accommodated in a separate bus attached to the Tiruchi-Howrah Super Fast Express. They are being escorted to West Bengal by a special team of the Tamil Nadu police with the assistance of Railway Protection Force (RPF) officials, police sources said. The immigrants will be handed over to Border Security Force (BSF) personnel who will send them across the border back to Bangladesh, sources said.
The operation is part of an ongoing campaign launched by the Ministry of Interior several years ago. So far, Tamil Nadu has sent back dozens of Bangladeshi citizens who were staying and working in the state without valid documents.
“We are coordinating with the security personnel on the route and also with the senior officials in charge to help the state police in ferrying the illegal immigrants to the destination,” a senior railway official told The Hindu.
Three detention centers in TN
The Tamil Nadu government has set up a special task force to deport Bangladeshis and Rohingyas (Myanmar nationals) who are staying without valid travel documents. There are three detention centers in Tiruchi, Cheiyyar and Attur where suspected illegal immigrants are held.
The initiative was taken after the Ministry of Home Affairs wrote to the Chief Secretaries of all States/Union Territories asking them to set up special task forces in all districts under police supervision to detect, identify and deport foreigners residing without valid travel documents.
Sources said the drive gained momentum after the ‘Sindoor’ operation. A large number of Bangladeshi nationals identified as illegal immigrants in various states were detained and handed over to the BSF. A significant number of them settled in Gujarat and also in states like Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya along the Indo-Bangladesh border.
In Tamil Nadu, thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, are suspected to have settled in western districts such as Erode, Namakkal, Tirupur, Coimbatore, Salem and Karur, where they got jobs in local industries. With the help of the agents, these foreign nationals managed to obtain proof of address and identity using forged documents, sources said.
Published – 21 March 2026 02:22 IST
