The issue of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh have been haunting Kerala and Tamil Nadu for quite some time and the coronavirus season has brought out startling revelations about the ever-increasing population of migrant workers who have crossed over to India illegally from the eastern borders.
The Pioneer came across a six-member Bangladeshi family who have settled in a colony in Ernakulam district’s Cherai, a coastal village. Mohammed Zuhail and Mohammed Ruhail with their families reached Ernakulam from their native place Khulna district in Bangladesh via West Bengal. They do not have any authorised papers that entitle them to travel in India. But they managed ‘to reach’ Ernakulam where they are employed as helpers and managed to get Rs 800 per day.
“Why you are targeting us? There are hundreds of people like us who have reached here and spread out in the district. Please do not make life difficult for us,” said Zuhail when asked about how they managed to reach Ernakulam.
Zuhail is accompanied by his wife, two children and brother. There were 15 members in the team and some of them have dissipated into the Ernakulam population to do mean jobs for survival.
It may be remembered that many top intelligence officials in Kerala had expressed concern over the uncontrolled influx of Bangladeshis into Kerala who enter the country illegally through the open borders along the eastern sector. Zuhail hinted that they got help from the Indian side to make it to Kerala.
Siby Abraham, former President of Paippadu Panchayath in Kottayam district was the first one to come out with the disclosure that thousands of illegal immigrants in his panchayath were from Bangladesh. These migrant workers numbering thousands had taken out a procession on March 30 in the town demanding immediate travel arrangements to their villages in Assam and Bengal. Abraham had said though these people claim that they were from the eastern States of the country, they were from Bangladesh. “Most of them have five to six identity cards in different names,” said this Congress leader.
In a startling disclosure, Janam TV, a popular news channels aired on Monday visual of fake Aadhar card providers in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruppur district. Agents charge Rs 2,500 for each Aadhar card which have resembles the original one issued by the Union Government. The agent is heard telling the reporter that he can supply any number of cards at the rate of Rs 2,500 per card. “I have issued 200 cards in Malappuram during the last three months,” said the agent.
Tiruppur has a considerable migrant population working in the knitwear units employing eight lakh workers.
Dr T P Senkumar, former chief of Kerala Police who was also the intelligence wing director general told The Pioneer that it was for the special branch wing and the Intelligence Bureau to take action on the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. “The concerned officials of the Kerala Police are aware of the happenings. They have to find out these persons and send them back to their places of origin,” Dr Senkumar said.
But officials in IB say they do not have authority other than collecting the details and inform the central and State Governments. A former RAW director said that the illegal entry of Bangladeshis have been happeneing since the days of Fakhruddeen Ali Ahmed , while he was a union minister in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet. “He had encouraged Bangladeshis to come and settle down in Assam and Bengal as part of creating a vote bank,” said the officer who did not want his name to be quoted.