Three women and six minors brought to detention centre on Sunday amid heightened security as BJP government's 'detect, delete and deport' drive rolls.
Nine suspected Bangladeshi citizens have been housed in Malda as the new BJP government in West Bengal launched its “detect, delete and deport” drive on Monday by opening its first “holding centre” aka detention camp for illegal aliens.
Extensive security measures have been put in place at the centre, including round-the-clock CCTV monitoring and deployment of police, civil defence personnel and civic volunteers, while provisions for the detainees’ meals and maintenance have also been arranged.
The only existing one in Bengal, it has been set up at Chandan Park in English Bazar, which continues to house nine individuals- including three women and six minors, who were brought there from Gazole's Pandua area on Sunday, amid heightened security arrangements, senior district police officers said.
The facility has been created to temporarily accommodate foreign nationals detained on charges of illegal entry or lack of valid documents.
The holding centre has started functioning. At present, nine Bangladeshi nationals are being housed there. Necessary verification and legal procedures are being carried out. The detainees are being treated in accordance with prescribed legal norms.
The development comes barely two days after the state Home and Hill Affairs Department's Foreigners' Branch directed all district administrations to establish "holding centres" for "apprehended foreigners" and "released foreign prisoners awaiting deportation or repatriation", giving institutional shape to one of the BJP's most politically resonant themes in Bengal.
The directive entered the machinery of governance after chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said the state would enforce a central order issued last year to trace illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and transfer them to the BSF for deportation.
At a meeting with senior BSF officers where land was handed over for fencing work along stretches of the Bangladesh border, Adhikari indicated that the state's anti-infiltration agenda had entered the implementation phase.
He had maintained that those outside the purview of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act would be treated as illegal entrants.
"Those who are outside the purview of the CAA are infiltrators and will be arrested by the state police and handed over to the BSF," CM Adhikari had said.
The new state order cited guidelines issued by the Union home ministry on the handling of Bangladeshi citizens and Rohingyas allegedly living in the country without valid authorisation.
Under these rules, such individuals may be kept at designated holding centres for a maximum of 30 days until officials complete checks related to their identity, nationality and documentation.
Under the proposed mechanism, the BSF would coordinate with Border Guards Bangladesh for deportation formalities, the officials said.
The holding centres now appear to be emerging as one of the first visible administrative structures under that framework.
The mechanism also appeared linked to the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, enacted by Parliament last year. The law replaced multiple earlier legislations governing immigration, registration and foreign nationals and introduced a more technology-driven structure for surveillance, detention and deportation.
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