There has been no unusual increase in apprehension of illegal infiltrators along the Bangladesh border in 2019 compared to the trend observed in the past six years, government data in Parliament show.
The number of illegal infiltrators apprehended by the Border Security Force (BSF) came down from 3,426 in the year 2015 to 1,118 in 2018. In 2019, there was a marginal increase when 1,351 persons were caught trying to enter India illegally. Till February 22 this year as many as 183 such persons were caught.
In 2014, there was a major spike in number of apprehensions when 2,455 persons were caught entering India illegally, compared to the previous year when only 209 people were caught.
India shares 4096.7 km border with Bangladesh and all of it is guarded by the BSF.
On March 3, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha that, “some infiltrators are able to enter in a clandestine and surreptitious manner, mainly due to difficult riverine terrain in parts of international border with Bangladesh which are not amenable to physical fencing.”
Fencing problems
As per the government reply, the fencing along the 900 km border along Bangladesh could not be completed due to various reasons which include “difficult terrain, riverine and marshy land, short working season, land acquisition problems, public protests and objections by Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB).”
The largest area of 579.65 km remains unfenced along West Bengal as the State shares 2,216.7 km, the longest border with Bangladesh, compared to other four States of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.
