KOLKATA: The West Bengal government, under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has established “holding centres” across all 23 districts for the detention of illegal Bangladeshi, Rohingya, and other immigrants awaiting deportation. This initiative resumes a process that had been halted for a year under the previous Trinamool Congress (TMC) government, which had defied guidelines from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), reported Debashis Konar and Srishti Lakhotia.
The state home department issued the order to district magistrates over the weekend, just 72 hours after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced the government’s commitment to the “detect, delete, and deport” strategy concerning illegal immigration. Each district will host one holding centre where detainees may be held for up to 30 days.
“Police cannot harass or detain individuals who entered India before December 31, 2024. Those not covered under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are considered illegal immigrants and infiltrators. The state police will detain these individuals and transfer them to the Border Security Force (BSF), which will coordinate with the Border Guard Bangladesh (BDR) for deportation,” Adhikari stated.
The prior TMC government had refused to implement the Union home ministry’s directive issued on May 2, 2025, claiming it was part of a strategy to deprive certain Indians of their citizenship. The TMC had suggested that this plan echoed the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the CAA, ultimately leading to the creation of Special Immigration Regulations (SIR). Former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had asserted that no person in Bengal would be sent to a detention centre as long as her party was in power. Comparisons were drawn to “transit camps” in Assam that house detainees identified for deportation by NRC tribunals.
The government defines holding centres as specialized facilities distinct from prisons, intended to house individuals suspected of having entered or stayed in the country illegally while their nationality is being verified. They also include foreign nationals who have completed their prison terms but must remain in custody until deportation or repatriation procedures are finalized.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report for 2024, 905 individuals were detained in Bengal that year under the Registration of Foreigners Act and the Foreigners Act. Foreign nationals represented 9% of Bengal’s prison population of 25,774, with Bangladeshis being the largest demographic, comprising 778 convicts and 1,440 undertrials.
