33 detained Bangladeshi nationals sent back from Tamil Nadu

Nearly 33 “illegal” immigrants from Bangladesh who were detained in Tamil Nadu’s Salem district were on Friday (March 20, 2026) put on a train to West Bengal, from where they will be sent back to their country.

According to police sources, the Bangladeshi nationals were accommodated in a separate coach attached to the Tiruchi-Howrah Super Fast Express. A special team of the Tamil Nadu police is escorting them to West Bengal with the assistance of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) officials, police sources said. The immigrants will be handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel who will send them back to Bangladesh through the border, the sources said. 

The operation is part of an ongoing drive launched by the Ministry of Home Affairs a couple of years ago. So far, Tamil Nadu has sent back dozens of Bangladeshi nationals who were staying and working in the State without valid documents.

“We are coordinating with security personnel along the route and also deputed senior officials to assist the State police in taking the illegal immigrants to the destination,” a senior Railway official told The Hindu.

Three detention centres inT.N.

The Tamil Nadu government had set up a Special Task Force to deport Bangladeshis and Rohingya (Myanmar nationals) staying without valid travel documents. Three detention centres are functioning in Tiruchi, Cheiyyar, and Attur, to house suspected illegal immigrants.

The initiative was taken after the Home Ministry wrote to Chief Secretaries of all the States/Union Territories, asking them to establish Special Task Forces in all districts under the supervision of the police to detect, identify, and deport foreign nationals staying without valid travel documents.

Sources said the drive gained momentum after Operation ‘Sindoor’. A large number of Bangladeshi nationals identified as illegal immigrants in different States were detained and handed over to the BSF. Of them, a sizeable number had settled in Gujarat as well as in States such as Assam, Tripura, and Meghalaya along the India-Bangladesh border

In Tamil Nadu, thousands of illegal immigrants, mostly from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, are suspected to have settled in western districts such as Erode, Namakkal, Tirupur, Coimbatore, Salem and Karur, where they got jobs in local industries. With the help of agents, these foreign nationals managed to get proof of address and identity using forged documents, the sources said.