Bangladesh Refugees

2 Pages 506 Words

The Migrants
Our home minister ordered the deportation of ‘illegal’ Bangladeshi immigrants and these non-citizens, wearily made their way back from the country they had made their home. It was a sequence so bizarre, it jars the senses: That globalised India, with a proud population of emigrants — pravasis, H1B visa holders, even illegal migrants — should think nothing of turning out immigrants settled on its own soil. Inevitably, then, the train to Bangladesh brings to mind searing images of another time 55 years ago: Images of frightened men and women huddled into trains shuttling across partitioned India. It is clear that ‘operation illegal immigrants’ is a political move.
There are an estimated 15 million Bangladeshis living in India It is jobs which are the biggest attraction for the majority of them. There is also a small percentage of Hindus who have fled their homeland to escape repression. But some of us tend to believe that the Hindu immigrants are refugees while Muslims are infiltrators, which is an irony to the two-nation theory. It is an irony to how we justify our emigration to the appealing west, but turn down their appeal to immigrate to India, where life seems to be much more exciting to them.
I accept, a large, unaccounted for immigrant population can pose difficulties. But the solution to this lies in seeing migrants as less a legal than a humanitarian problem. It might be perfectly permissible to round up and deport illegally staying Bangladeshis. But for this to work, economic conditions need to become more attractive across the border. Take our own people. It’s unlikely they would have emigrated to foreign shores, had they got better jobs and a higher quality of life here itself. But they still retain strong emotional ties with this country and this proves my point.
Besides suffering from a 'small neighbour-big neighbour' syndrome, bilateral ties are also weighed down by historical baggage of Ban...