NEW DELHI: Infiltration along the India-Bangladesh border has reduced significantly in the last five years; the government informed Parliament on Tuesday. From 2,455 in 2014, the number of illegal migrants entering the country through the Bangladesh border had come down to 1,118 last year, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha in response to a question.
This year, 497 infiltrators were caught along the India-Bangladesh border till June 30. The minister, however, added that the “accurate number of infiltrators is not available”. Statistics show that the number of infiltrations have come down steadily over past five years except in 2015 when 3,426 infiltrators were nabbed at the border. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively, the number of infiltrators caught along the India-Bangladesh border was 2,075, 1,175 and 1,118.
Rai said border guarding forces conduct regular patrolling, lay nakas and establish observation posts and carry out anti-tunneling exercise to stop illegal infiltration. “However, some illegal migrants are able to enter in a clandestine and surreptitious manner, mainly due to difficult riverine terrain in parts of border which are not amenable to physical fencing. As such, the accurate number of infiltrators is not available,” Rai said.
He also informed the House that `1138.48 crore had been spent for the International Border fencing between India and Bangladesh during the last five years. He said the schemes for creation of border infrastructure like fence, road, floodlight and BOPs were in progress and their expected date for completion is December 2020. India shares a 4,096.70 km border with Bangladesh and fence has been sanctioned for 3326.14 km.