Amid Odisha’s crackdown on “illegal immigrants” in the state since May, fresh discord bubbled up with its neighbouring state after the West Bengal government alleged that nearly 100 migrant workers from the state have been allegedly detained and “sent to detention centres” on suspicion of being Bangladeshis.
According to TMC Rajya Sabha MP and chairman of the state’s Migrant Welfare Board Samirul Islam, “top administrative officials and police officers, under the instructions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, have reached out to their counterparts in Odisha” regarding the issue.
“But they are not releasing the poor migrant workers,” Samirul Islam said. “What has happened is unconstitutional”.
“They are Indian citizens and residents of Bengal. They have gone to Odisha for work. But they have been detained and labelled Bangladeshis. They have been sent to the detention centre,” he said. “We will bring them home”.
Targeting the CM Mohan Majhi-led Odisha government, Samirul Islam said, “In state after state, under BJP rule, this is happening.” The development in Odisha comes after seven persons, including four youths and a couple, from West Bengal, who had been picked up by the Maharashtra Police and pushed into Bangladesh, were brought back last week following the intervention of the TMC government in West Bengal.
According to government sources, Bengal administration officials and the police are in touch with their Odisha counterparts and have furnished residential documents of those detained and pressed for their immediate release and return.
Contacted regarding the developments, a senior Odisha government official told The Indian Express that verifications are being done as part of a nationwide exercise in view of the recent developments in the neighbourhood. “No one is being detained at any police station. We are just verifying their identities and are also in touch with the West Bengal government,” the official said.
