‘We aren’t from Bangladesh, we’re Indian. Why did they do that to us?’

[ad_1] Ilma Hasan BBC Hindi, West Bengal

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/753b/live/de843000-db35-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/753b/live/de843000-db35-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/753b/live/de843000-db35-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/753b/live/de843000-db35-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/753b/live/de843000-db35-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/753b/live/de843000-db35-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/753b/live/de843000-db35-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/753b/live/de843000-db35-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="Rubaiyat Biswas/BBC Sunali Khatun looks at the camera as tears run down her cheek." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Rubaiyat Biswas/BBC Sunali Khatun says the deportation tore her household aside

"I used to be scared that my kid's nationality would change if he was born in Bangladesh," says a closely pregnant Sunali Khatun, 25, who returned to India earlier this month after being deported to the neighbouring nation in June.

Ms Khatun, a home employee from India's jap state of West Bengal, was detained in Delhi along with her husband, Danish Sheikh, and their eight-year-old son, and deported to Bangladesh on suspicion of being unlawful immigrants. Bangladeshi authorities later jailed the household for coming into the nation unlawfully.

Her deportation made nationwide headlines and was stridently criticised by the West Bengal authorities, who accused the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering-led federal authorities of deporting her without cause . She is amongst a whole lot of people that have been detained and deported to Bangladesh up to now couple of months on suspicion of being unlawful immigrants.

Delhi has not supplied official knowledge about these deportations, however high sources within the Bangladesh authorities had earlier told the BBC that in Could alone, greater than 1,200 individuals have been "illegally pushed in". The identical month, the government-run All India Radio reported that about 700 individuals had been despatched again from Delhi.

Crackdowns on alleged Bangladeshi immigrants usually are not new in India. The 2 international locations share shut cultural ties and a porous 4,096km (2,545-mile) border spanning 5 states. West Bengal, like others alongside the frontier, has lengthy seen waves of migration as individuals sought work or fled non secular persecution.

However rights activists say the latest deportations goal Muslims who communicate Bengali - the language spoken in each West Bengal and Bangladesh - and the train is being performed with out due course of.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/94c1/live/00775470-db37-11f0-9016-6de5b06bea92.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/94c1/live/00775470-db37-11f0-9016-6de5b06bea92.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/94c1/live/00775470-db37-11f0-9016-6de5b06bea92.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/94c1/live/00775470-db37-11f0-9016-6de5b06bea92.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/94c1/live/00775470-db37-11f0-9016-6de5b06bea92.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/94c1/live/00775470-db37-11f0-9016-6de5b06bea92.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/94c1/live/00775470-db37-11f0-9016-6de5b06bea92.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/94c1/live/00775470-db37-11f0-9016-6de5b06bea92.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Rubaiyat Biswas/BBC Sonali Khatun looks at her son who is walking beside her." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Rubaiyat Biswas/BBC Ms Khatun and her son spent greater than 100 days in a jail in Bangladesh

Ms Khatun and her household, together with three neighbours - all Bengali-speaking Muslims - have been deported after Delhi's International Regional Registration Workplace mentioned they lacked paperwork proving their authorized entry or keep in India. Her seven-year-old daughter was left behind, as she was staying with family members when the household was detained.

Beneath protocol, authorities should confirm a suspected unlawful migrant's declare with the house state. West Bengal Migrant Staff Welfare Board chairman Samirul Islam instructed the BBC this was not performed in Ms Khatun's case.

The BBC has written to Delhi's dwelling division that displays deportations.

In December, India's Supreme Court docket requested the federal authorities to permit Ms Khatun and her son to return on "humanitarian grounds" whereas her citizenship was investigated. She has since been residing along with her dad and mom in West Bengal. Her husband, launched on bail, stays in Bangladesh with a relative.

Ms Khatun, says she has blended emotions about being allowed again in India.

She is relieved that her child, due in January, shall be an Indian citizen by birthright, however is anxious about her husband, whom she has not seen for greater than three months since they have been held in separate jail cells in Bangladesh.

On video calls, she says, he breaks down usually, saying that he desires to come back dwelling.

"We aren't from Bangladesh, we're Indian. Why did they do that to us?" Ms Khatun asks.

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/6dbd/live/9fac6e00-db36-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/6dbd/live/9fac6e00-db36-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/6dbd/live/9fac6e00-db36-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/6dbd/live/9fac6e00-db36-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/6dbd/live/9fac6e00-db36-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/6dbd/live/9fac6e00-db36-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/6dbd/live/9fac6e00-db36-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/6dbd/live/9fac6e00-db36-11f0-9997-ed89cd5d199e.jpg.webp" loading="lazy" alt="Rubaiyat Biswas/BBC Sunali is looking at her husband, Danish, as she speaks to him on a video call." class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Rubaiyat Biswas/BBC Sunali's husband Danish stays in Bangladesh and speaks to her through video calls

She alleges that a couple of week after being detained by the Delhi police, her household and their neighbours have been flown to the India-Bangladesh border and "pushed" throughout by paramilitary personnel from the Border Safety Drive (BSF).

"They left us in a dense forest [in Bangladesh] with a lot of rivers and streams," she alleges and provides that after they tried to enter India by a route proven to them by locals, BSF guards beat up some within the group, together with her husband, after which led them again into the forest they'd initially been delivered to.

The BBC has despatched inquiries to the BSF searching for a response to Ms Khatun's allegations.

With assist from locals, the group travelled to Dhaka, the place they wandered for days with little meals or water earlier than being arrested and jailed. She says the jail meals was insufficient for a pregnant girl and that her cell had no rest room.

"I used to be scared as a result of it was simply my son and me. All we did was cry," she says.

The BBC has written to Bangladesh's dwelling and prisons departments for a response to Sunali's allegations.

Again in India, her household was making determined journeys to courts to show her citizenship in order that she may very well be introduced again. Her case is being heard by the Supreme Court docket.

"My household has been torn aside," Ms Khatun says, as she sits in her guardian's one-room shanty in West Bengal. With two younger kids and one other one on the best way, she says she does not understand how she's going to feed all of them.