The campaign follows a landslide electoral victory by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP in West Bengal, where the party pledged to “detect, delete and deport” illegal migrants.

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Sunday that 4,800 Bangladeshi citizens had already been deported after being held in newly established detention facilities across the state.

“We have started the work of deporting Bangladeshi infiltrators who do not fall under the purview of the Citizenship Amendment Act,” Adhikari told reporters in Kolkata.

He said the government established holding centers in every district during May and that a further 836 people were currently being held pending deportation.

India and Bangladesh share a long and porous border, and migration between the two countries has historically been driven by economic opportunities, family ties and cross-border cultural links.

The new state administration has also ordered detention measures for Rohingya refugees, members of a predominantly Muslim minority who fled persecution in neighboring Myanmar.

The deportation drive has renewed debate over immigration and citizenship in one of India’s most politically sensitive border regions.

Senior BJP leaders have frequently described undocumented migrants as “infiltrators,” arguing that illegal migration places pressure on public resources and alters demographic balances.

Critics, including civil rights advocates and opposition groups, contend that the government’s rhetoric and enforcement measures disproportionately affect Muslim communities and risk undermining due process protections. Human rights organizations have previously accused Indian authorities of forcibly expelling Bengali-speaking Muslims without adequate legal review.

The crackdown comes as diplomatic relations between India and Bangladesh continue to recover from tensions that emerged after the 2024 political upheaval in Dhaka, which ended the rule of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, a close partner of New Delhi.

A new government elected in Bangladesh in February has sought to stabilize ties with India. Border security chiefs from both countries are scheduled to meet in New Delhi on Monday to discuss cross-border issues, including migration and security cooperation.

The Rohang Heritage Center, established in Camp 6 and funded by Bangladeshi authorities in February, was launched as more than 1.3 million Rohingya refugees continue to live across 33 camps in southeastern Bangladesh amid stalled efforts to repatriate them to Myanmar.

The center contains more than 200 items, including historical maps, newspaper clippings, books, photographs and recordings of the Rohingya language.
Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, said the collection was assembled from materials carried into Bangladesh by Rohingya refugees during successive waves of displacement from Myanmar.

“The items have been collected from old newspaper clippings, books published on Rohingya history, and various historical documents,” Rahman said, adding that the initiative aims to help younger Rohingya reconnect with their ethnic and cultural heritage.

The Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim minority from Myanmar’s Rakhine State, have faced decades of discrimination and statelessness. Hundreds of thousands fled to Bangladesh following a military crackdown in 2017, adding to earlier refugee populations that had crossed the border over previous decades.

Bangladesh and the United Nations have repeatedly sought to facilitate the voluntary return of refugees to Myanmar, but the process has remained largely frozen amid political instability and armed conflict. Conditions deteriorated further after Myanmar’s military seized power in 2021, while fighting between junta forces and the Arakan Army in Rakhine State has intensified since 2024.

Camp administrator Gazi Shariful Hasan, who initiated the heritage project, said a central objective was to collect official Myanmar documents issued before 1989 that identified holders as Rohingya, preserving evidence of state recognition before citizenship rights were effectively withdrawn.

According to Hasan, the center includes civil records, political archives and profiles of Rohingya figures who once participated in Myanmar’s national political life, including former members of parliament.
“Of course, no government would allow foreign nationals to serve in its parliament, which indicates that the Myanmar government previously recognized this ethnic population,” Hasan said.

The exhibits also document the community’s intellectual, religious and cultural history, including biographies of prominent Rohingya Islamic scholars and archival material related to mosques in Rakhine State.

One section features photographs of 25 mosques built in the early 19th century in Rakhine. Organizers said many of the structures have since been destroyed, making historical photographs among the few remaining records of their existence.

The center is operated by Rohingya volunteers and serves both as a cultural archive and an educational resource for younger refugees, many of whom have spent most or all of their lives in camps and have limited access to formal education.

Bangladeshi officials said preserving cultural memory remains important as uncertainty persists over the timing and conditions for any future repatriation process.

Prior to Sunday’s arrivals, the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) said that 1,200 Rohingya people, a persecuted minority from Myanmar, had landed ashore in Indonesia since November.

Miftah Cut Ade, chief of the fishing community in Aceh, said that two boats landed in the province early on Sunday morning, one each in the districts of Pidie and Aceh Besar.

Each boat was carrying an estimated 200 Rohingya, he said.

Andi Susanto, a local military official, said about 180 Rohingya had landed in Pidie at 4 a.m. (2100 GMT), and that officers were coordinating in the field to collect data.

Susanto confirmed the military was aware of a second boat but did not have information of where it had landed or how many were on board.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said in a statement on Friday that he suspects human trafficking is behind the recent escalation in boat arrivals and has promised to work with international organisations to handle the issue.

Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees but has a history of taking in refugees when they arrive on the country’s shores.

But the high volume of recent arrivals has prompted a backlash on social media and some pushback from people in Aceh, the westernmost region most boats land.

For years, Rohingya have left Buddhist-majority Myanmar where they are generally regarded as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship and subjected to abuse.

When seas are calmer between November and April every year, members of the persecuted minority leave on wooden boats for neighbouring Thailand and Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia.

When seas are calmer between November and April every year, members of the persecuted minority leave on wooden boats for neighbouring Thailand and Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Miftah Cut Ade, chief of the fishing community in Aceh on Indonesia’s westernmost tip, told Reuters the latest group of Rohingya landed on Le Meulee beach on the island of Sabang before dawn on Saturday.

“They are mostly women and children and they are in a weak condition,” he said.

Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees but has a history of taking in refugees when they arrive on the country’s shores.

For years, Rohingya have left Buddhist-majority Myanmar where they are generally regarded as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship and subjected to abuse.

Nearly a million Rohingya live in refugee camps in the Bangladeshi border district of Cox’s Bazar, most after fleeing a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.

Nearly one million members of the Muslim minority from Myanmar live in bamboo-and-plastic camps in the Bangladeshi border district of Cox’s Bazar, most after fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.

“A few years ago, these boats mostly carried young males,” said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project that helps refugees, referring to small boats that set off from the Bangladesh and Myanmar coasts, usually bound for Southeast Asia.

“A large number aboard are entire families, parents with children, and sometimes extended families.”

Rohingya traditionally take to sea in October, at the end of the rainy season, on journeys fraught with danger. The boats, often over-crowded, can sink, or run out of food and water, and the Rohingya can fall into the hands of people smugglers.

Out of an estimated 1,084 Rohingya who came ashore in Indonesia’s Aceh province this month, 360 were children, 292 women and 238 men, according to U.N. refugee agency data.

Of 3,572 Rohingya who have left on 34 boats this year, 31% of them were children, data showed. About 65% of those leaving set off from Bangladesh this year, compared with 27% last year. Most of the rest leave from Myanmar.

In 2022, one of the deadliest years for the Rohingya at sea, a fifth of the about 3,705 people who fled were children.

“Children making the boat journeys was not a trend before,” said Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner based in Cox’s Bazar.

‘Desperate’

Rohingya have faced persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar for decades. They are generally regarded as foreign interlopers from South Asia, denied citizenship and subjected to abuse.

With little hope of settling in Bangladesh or being accepted elsewhere, they feel they have no choice but to take to sea, Rahman said.

“When an entire section becomes stateless, when they see no prospect of their repatriation or integrating into the countries they are settled in, they obviously become worried about the future of their next generation,” he said.

Aid workers say another factor contributing to more families deciding to take to sea is that conditions in the refugee camps are getting much more tough.

This year, the U.N. cut food aid to the refugees in Bangladesh by a third, to $8 per person a month because it has been able to raise less than half of the $876 million needed to support them. Many parents are skipping meals.

“You can’t even buy an egg with that,” said Rahman, referring to a meal allowance of about 9 Bangladeshi taka ($0.08) per person.

The chances of going home to Myanmar are more slim than ever. Myanmar’s military government has offered talks on repatriation but no progress has been made and insecurity is deteriorating with a growing insurgency against military rule.

“No one can think of going back right now,” said refugee Mohammed Taher in Cox’s Bazar, who knows two families that recently set off for Malaysia.

“Some people are desperate to leave by any means. They’re ready to take dangerous sea voyages knowing that they can end up dead.”

The refugees, who arrived at various parts of the province including Bireuen, Pidie and East Aceh, have overwhelmed local facilities, Munawaratul Makhya, a UNHCR official, told Reuters.

“Since their arrival early this morning, we have coordinated with local officials in Pidie region to ensure the refugees are getting their basic needs, since they have been floating for many days on the sea,” the official said.

She said the location where they were being accommodated in Pidie was overflowing with the fresh arrivals and the UNHCR was waiting for the government to provide bigger temporary shelters to house them.

Hundreds of Muslim Rohingya have arrived in Aceh province in recent days, taking the total there to more than a thousand, continuing a migration which has for several years seen Rohingyas escaping from Myanmar to Muslim-majority Bangladesh, or by rickety wooden boats to Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as Thailand.

Almost 1 million Rohingya are living in camps in Bangladesh in what U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi described as “the biggest humanitarian refugee camp in the world”.

Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry said the Southeast Asian country “has no obligation nor capacity to accommodate refugees, let alone to provide a permanent solution”.

Jakarta is not a signatory of the UN refugee convention.

Many members of the ethnic Rohingya Muslims, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, have for years boarded rickety wooden boats to escape to Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as Thailand.

The latest group of Rohingya refugees landed in Aceh’s Bireun region in the afternoon and comprised mostly of women and children, the head of local fishing community Miftah Cut Ade told Reuters.

Photos he shared appeared to show the Rohingya sitting huddling on the beach, facing the sea.

Up to 200 Rohingya landed in Aceh’s Pidie region on Wednesday and a day before that, 196 others arrived. Miftah said based on the Rohingya’s account, they had departed from Bangladesh.

Hundreds more had reached Aceh earlier this year, many having been at sea for months.

Nearly one million Rohingya are living in camps in Bangladesh in what U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi described as “the biggest humanitarian refugee camp in the world”.

Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry said the Southeast Asian country “has no obligation nor capacity to accommodate refugees, let alone to provide permanent solution”, underscoring that Jakarta is not a signatory of the UN refugee convention.

“We have also identified that Indonesia’s kindness in providing temporary shelter has been misused by people smugglers,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Lalu Muhamad Iqbal, said in a statement.

The recent arrivals come as Myanmar’s generals face their biggest test since seizing power in a 2021 coup, with insurgent groups gaining ground in several parts of the country in a coordinated offensive against the junta.

Nearly one million Rohingya Muslims fled a military-led crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in 2017 and are now living in camps in Bangladesh in what U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi described as “the biggest humanitarian refugee camp in the world”.

The U.N. has managed to secure only 42% of the $875.9 million needed for the Rohingya refugee this year which makes short term support for the refugee population in the camps difficult, Grandi told Reuters in an interview.

“This decline in humanitarian assistance makes it more difficult to continuously, for example, renew the shelters,” Grandi said.

“You have to invest money all the time and that money is becoming short, so conditions are now beginning to regress,” he said.

Grandi was in Bangkok on Tuesday to host a meeting with high level officials in the region on the Rohingya issue, seeking pledges and support from governments and the private sector ahead of the Global Refugee Forum in December.

Grandi praised Bangladesh for “miraculous” works in maintaining the Rohingya camps, allowing education for the Rohingya children, and said that the United Nations is currently discussing with Bangladesh on allowing refugees to work to support their livelihood in the camps.

Improvements to the humanitarian situation in Myanmar, particularly on improving relations between Buddhist and Muslim communities and economic development, are essential to ensure a safe return for the Rohingya to their home, Grandi said.

Myanmar has been under military rule since a 2021 coup and the junta have shown little inclination to take back any Rohingya, who have for years been regarded as foreign interlopers in Myanmar, denied citizenship and subjected to abuse.

The Myanmar coup has also triggered conflict with a resistance movement and armed ethnic groups across the country, displacing more than a million people, the U.N. said.

Myanmar junta spokesman did not answer calls from Reuters seeking comment.

UNHCR high commissioner said Myanmar’s neighbouring countries can do more to press the military government on humanitarian concerns.

“They are the best place to pass messages and to ensure that the humanitarian concerns are heard,” he

The members of the Muslim Rohingya community were detained in six town and cities in the state and 10 of the refugees were juveniles, police said, without giving ages.

The Rohingya Human Rights Initiative campaign group said the detained people had been living in the area for about 10 years after fleeing persecution in Myanmar.

Many had been doing manual labour including rubbish collection, Initiative director Sabber Kyaw Min said. “They have been only demanding refuge,” he added. “The community is requesting … an end to detentions.”

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar to countries including Bangladesh, which borders India. Myanmar’s military denies committing crimes against humanity.

New Delhi has not signed the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, which spells out refugee rights and states’ responsibilities to protect them, nor does it have its own laws protecting refugees.

Around 18,000 Rohingya lived in India as of early last year, according to Rohingya Human Rights Initiative co-founder Ali Johar.

More than a million Rohingya have been crammed into the camps in southeastern Bangladesh, the world’s largest refugee settlement. Most fled the crackdown by Myanmar’s military almost six years ago, although some have been there for longer.

During Thursday’s demonstrations across the sprawling camps, refugees, young and old, waved placards and chanted slogans.

“No more refugee life. No verification. No scrutiny. No interview. We want quick repatriation through UNHCR data card. We want to go back to our motherland,” the placards read. “Let’s go back to Myanmar. Don’t try to stop repatriation.”

Surging crime, harsh living conditions and bleak prospects for returning to Myanmar are driving more Rohingya refugees to leave Bangladesh by boat for countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, putting their lives at risk. U.N. data shows 348 Rohingya are thought to have died at sea last year.

Rohingya community leader Mohammad Jashim said he was keen to return to Myanmar but wanted his citizenship rights guaranteed.

“We are the citizens of Myanmar by birth. We want to go back home with all our rights, including citizenship, free movement, livelihood, safety, and security,” he told Reuters, saying the refugees hoped for United Nations’ help in this regard.

Myanmar’s military had until recently shown little inclination to take back any Rohingya, who have for years been regarded as foreign interlopers in Myanmar and denied citizenship and subjected to abuse.

Attempts to begin repatriation in 2018 and 2019 failed as the refugees, fearing prosecution, refused to go back.

A group of 20 Rohingya Muslims told Reuters they would not return to Myanmar to “be confined in camps” after visiting their homeland as part of a pilot scheme aimed at encouraging voluntary repatriation. A Bangladesh official said the pilot scheme envisaged about 1,100 refugees returning to Myanmar, but no date had been set.

Densely populated Bangladesh says refugees’ repatriation to Myanmar is the only solution to the crisis. Local communities have been increasingly hostile towards the Rohingya as international aid agencies’ funding for the refugees has dwindled.

The World Food Programme recently cut the monthly food allocation to $8 per person from $10 earlier.

“Our situation is only deteriorating. What future do we have here?” asked refugee Mohammed Taher, as he stood with other protesters.

“In the name of verification and scrutiny, they (Myanmar) are only killing time.”