| Pub. Date | : Jul, 2019 |
|---|---|
| Product Name | : The IUP Journal of International Relations |
| Product Type | : Article |
| Product Code | : IJIR21907 |
| Author Name | : Rudra Prasad Sahoo |
| Availability | : YES |
| Subject/Domain | : Management |
| Download Format | : PDF Format |
| No. of Pages | : 12 |
Illegal Bangladeshi migration is a matter of concern and has posed a great threat to the national security of India. The issue of illegal Bangladeshi migration remains a potent political issue and assumes much significance in India-Bangladesh bilateral relations, especially in the context of taking a decision in shaping India’s foreign policy. How to respond to internal and external threats coming from illegal Bangladeshi migrants is a major challenge. Even more difficult is how to guide India’s policy within the region and other regions for fostering cooperation to achieve India’s larger national and regional security interest. This issue of illegal migration is a sensitive matter and needs meticulous thinking in the geopolitical chessboard of the Indian subcontinent. Hence, this paper attempts to explain how to deal with the illegal Bangladeshi migration issue in order to minimize the threat to India’s internal security and provide the right approach to achieve regional cooperation.
The illegal cross-border Bangladeshi migration is creating bitter acrimony in India-Bangladesh bilateral relations and posing serious ramification to the security (both internal and external) aspect for India. In 2004, the then Minister of State for Home, Sriprakash Jaiswal said in the Rajya Sabha that about 12,053,950 illegal Bangladeshis are residing in different parts of India. Out of which the highest number around 57 lakh were residing in West Bengal and around 50 lakh settled in the state of Assam. The situation is so alarming in the context of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) report, released on September 11, 2013, in which it was mentioned that “Persons from Bangladesh residing in India constituted the single largest ‘bilateral stock’ of international migrants in South Asia (3.2 million)”.