Friday, August 8, 2025

Crackdown on illegal immigrants worries and angers Muslims


Doesn't look like LA, does it. Well, it's not. It's Gurugram, an upscale suburb just outside Delhi, India. But, come to think of it, there are similarities with the City of the Angels. Gleaming SUVs, futuristic skyscrapers and neat apartments stand in stark contrast to nearby homeless encampments and feces-strewn streets.

Unlike the slums of LA, those of Gurugram are inhabited by people who aren't living off food stamps and the proceeds of dealing drugs, but working! They are migrant workers -- mostly domestic helpers, garbage-pickers and daily-wage workers. Last month, the Indian version of ICE rounded up hundreds of them, mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims from India's West Bengal state.

The mass arrests are part of a "verification" drive targeting illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. The suspects were detained and kept at "holding centres" (not to be confused with "concentration camps") where they were asked to provide documents to prove their citizenship. 

Many allege they were beaten and mistreated by police during the process. Ather Ali Sheikh told the BBC, "I had my voter and national ID cards, but they told me they were fake. I spent six days not knowing my fate before I was finally released." How very misfortunate for him!

Hundreds of migrant workers have fled overnight, abandoning jobs, homes and, in some cases, even families in their haste to escape. "I still don't understand why they suddenly came after me," Mr Sheikh said. Behind him, his wife hurriedly packed their belongings - torn clothes, old utensils and school books - into flimsy boxes. "Was it because of my language, my religion or because I am poor? Why weren't the rich Bengali residents held up?" 

Police in Gurugram deny targeting any particular community. "Neither religion nor class has anything to do with the drive," spokesthingy Sandeep Kumar told the Beeb. He added that out of the 250 people picked up, only 10 have been identified as illegal migrants and will actually be deported. "Everyone else was released. No one was mistreated at the centres. We have been completely fair and objective." 

Crackdowns on alleged illegal immigrants from Muslim-majority Bangladesh are not new in India. The countries are divided by a porous 2500-mile-long border, which, ever since the partition of India, has seen waves of movement of people on both sides. But these efforts seem to have intensified under the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Deportations are also under way in Delhi, where some 700 people were picked up and flown out to border states in the last six months. This has had a chilling impact on the marginalised community. In Gurugram, a sense of shock prevailed over their dust-blanketed colonies. "For years, we have cleaned and collected their garbage. Now we are being treated like it ourselves," said Rauna Bibi, a domestic worker.

The police say the detentions in Gurugram were made on the basis of strong preliminary evidence. You'll notice that the lady in the photo isn't so poor that she can't afford a phone with which to take a selfie. But the phone may have been her undoing. "We checked their phones," said the same police flak-catcher, "and found suspicious contacts from Bangladesh. Some of them also failed to answer questions about their ancestry during interrogation."

Suhas Chakma, a non-Muslim human rights worker, denies that the crackdown is motivated by Islamophobia. "The arrest of the Muslims appears to be more as they constitute about 95% of Bangladesh's population," he explained. But, he added, for a country that has seen an influx of refugees for decades, India does need a wider refugee law to address many of these complex issues.

"A wider refugee law." Right. Like that of... where??? Let it not be said that Prime Minister Modi is looking to President Trump for inspiration -- although he probably is. Let us instead wonder how much longer the prime ministers of Britain and Canada can get away with not taking similar measures before what's left of their countries' white  populace rise up in arms.

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