India faces criticism over expulsions of Muslims to Bangladesh without due process

Indian authorities have come under fire for allegedly expelling hundreds of ethnic Bengali Muslims—many of whom are Indian citizens—to Bangladesh without following legal protocols. Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday condemned the moves as discriminatory and in violation of both domestic law and international human rights standards.

Since May 2025, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has escalated deportation operations targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims. Officials assert these individuals are undocumented immigrants. However, many of those expelled were later found to be lawful Indian residents, HRW reported.

Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, criticized the government’s actions. “The BJP is fueling discrimination by arbitrarily expelling Bengali Muslims from the country, including Indian citizens,” she said.

HRW’s investigation, based on interviews with 18 individuals across nine cases, uncovered accounts of forced deportations, physical abuse, and expulsion without legal representation or hearings. In one instance, Khairul Islam, a 51-year-old former schoolteacher from Assam, said Indian border officers tied his hands, gagged him, and forced him into Bangladesh on May 26, firing rubber bullets into the air when he resisted. He returned to India two weeks later.

India has not released official data, but Bangladesh’s border force reported over 1,500 Muslims, including 100 Rohingya refugees, were expelled between May 7 and June 15. The expulsions are ongoing, according to HRW.

Following an April attack in Jammu and Kashmir, Indian police began harassing Muslims, seizing their identity documents and phones, and denying citizenship claims. In multiple cases, the Border Security Force (BSF) allegedly used force to compel individuals to cross into Bangladesh.

States such as Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, and Rajasthan—most governed by the BJP—have intensified crackdowns, detaining impoverished Muslim migrant workers. Many were reportedly transferred to the border without verification of their nationality.

In Assam, long-standing issues with a flawed citizenship verification system have worsened the situation. Foreigners Tribunals—quasi-judicial bodies—have declared over 165,000 individuals as illegal immigrants, often using inconsistent or minor clerical errors as justification. HRW found repeated use of ex parte judgments and lack of proper legal notice.

In a disturbing example, a 67-year-old disabled woman, Maleka Khatun, was pushed across the border into Bangladesh at 3 a.m. on May 27. Her son said she had previously spent six years in a detention center and was awaiting a court ruling on her citizenship.

The West Bengal government has accused BJP states of racial profiling. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, “Is speaking Bengali a crime?” in response to reports that Bengali-speaking Indian citizens were being wrongly targeted and expelled.

In Gujarat, authorities reportedly demolished more than 10,000 structures—homes, mosques, and businesses—in Muslim-dominated areas. UN human rights experts condemned these demolitions, calling them “forced evictions without legal safeguards.” In Ahmedabad, police paraded nearly 900 detainees, including women and children, through the streets.

Similar operations have occurred in Odisha and Rajasthan. In Odisha’s Jharsuguda district, 444 workers were detained. Rajasthan police reportedly expelled at least 148 individuals to Bangladesh. In Jaipur, a tribal man and his cousin were detained for weeks before being released, despite showing valid documents.

The UN has also condemned India’s treatment of Rohingya refugees. In May, Indian authorities allegedly forced 40 Rohingya refugees into the sea near Myanmar, violating the international legal principle of nonrefoulement. The Indian Supreme Court declined to halt deportations, dismissing concerns as a “beautifully crafted story.”

India is party to several international conventions, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibits arbitrary expulsion. HRW has urged the Indian government to immediately halt all unlawful deportations, respect due process, and ensure protection for vulnerable communities.

“The Indian government is putting thousands of vulnerable people at risk,” Pearson said. “This undermines India’s tradition of offering refuge to the persecuted and signals growing intolerance toward Muslims.”

Read the complete version of the full report published by Human Rights Watch here.