'Hindu People Are Not Coming': Assam CM Flags Rise In Illegal Immigration, Attributes Trend to Bangladesh Textile Crisis

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has highlighted a "massive increase" in attempts of illegal immigration into Assam after the political change in Bangladesh in 2024.

He stated that all intercepted individuals at the border were Muslims, with no detected cases of minority Hindu immigrants.

Sarma explained that the rise in illegal immigration stems from economic disruptions in Bangladesh’s textile industry.

The setback has pushed workers to seek employment in India, allegedly encouraged by local textile manufacturers seeking cost-effective labor.

Amid concerns over minority targeting in Bangladesh following Sheikh Hasina’s removal in August, Sarma noted that infiltrators continue to be intercepted and returned at the Assam-Bangladesh border.

He emphasised that no Hindu Bangladeshis had been detected in Assam over the past five months.

“There has been a massive increase in infiltration into Assam and India. Two days back, I had even discussed this with my counterparts in various Northeast states and also with the government of West Bengal. Every day, Assam police are detecting 20 to 30 infiltrators and equal numbers are also being witnessed in Tripura. So when we tried to research why this is happening, (we found that) after the unrest in Bangladesh, the textile industry has virtually collapsed. So, the labourers who earlier worked in the textile industry in Bangladesh are coming to India, and many textile factory owners within our country are incentivising this, giving a good amount of money for importing cheap labour illegally,” he said, Indian Express reported.

Sarma shared these remarks during a press event reviewing the state government’s performance over the past year.

Sarma added that the issue was also raised during the North East Council plenary in Tripura in December 2024 and has been escalated to the Union Home Ministry.

“Once there was unrest in Bangladesh, the economy collapsed. Obviously, the majority community is affected more than the minority community in Bangladesh. In the textile industry too, most of the labourers were from the majority community. So influx has increased into India, and mostly these are from the so-called majority community of Bangladesh; in India, we treat them as a minority community. I think so far we have detained and pushed back around 1,000 infiltrators this year (2024),” he said.

The Assam Chief Minister has frequently highlighted infiltration cases along the Indo-Bangladesh border, sharing individual cases on social media.

On 25 December 2024, he posted about five women apprehended by Assam police at the border.

“Hindu people are not coming. Whoever wanted to come, they must have come earlier, 30-40 years back. These are the people who do not want to leave Bangladesh. They must have some kind of affinity to the soil of the land. They must be patriotic Bangladeshis. Even after tremendous atrocity, they do not want to come out of Bangladesh because their forefathers were there in that land. I think we should also not encourage them to come to India. Prime Minister is working overtime to create a condition of security in Bangladesh itself and Bangladesh Hindu people are also acting very maturely, and we have not detected any Hindu Bangladeshi in the last five months in Assam,” he said on Tuesday (31 December).

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