'Send to India': Bangladesh Court on Deported Pregnant Bengali Woman, 5 Others

Six members of two migrant families were deported to Bangladesh. One is a pregnant woman now in her final trimester.

Six members of two migrant families were deported to Bangladesh. One of them is a pregnant woman now in her final trimester.

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

"We have some hopes now. Maybe, now they might return in another month."

These are the words of Amir Khan, younger brother of Sweety Bibi, as told to The Quint on Friday, 10 October. Sweety, and five others, including a pregnant Sonali Khatun, from two separate migrant families, were deported to Bangladesh four months back on suspicion of being "illegal Banlgadeshis."

Now, a Bangladesh court has stated that all six of them were deported to their country are Indian citizens, citing their Aadhaar card numbers. The court further directed authorities to prepare to send them back home.

Earlier, on 26 September, the Calcutta High Court had set side the Centre's decision to deport Sonali, Sweety, and others, and directed that they be repatriated within four weeks.

A division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Reetobroto Kumar Mitra held that the deportation was "illegal," and rejected the Centre's plea seeking to defer the order.

Their deportation came on the heels of detentions of Bengali migrant labourers in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh during the drive to nab 'illegal Bangladeshis' some months ago. The Quint had reported on this story.

Amir confirmed to The Quint that there are a total of six people who were deported to Bangladesh — Sonali, her husband Danish Ali, their minor son, Sweety, and her two sons.

Sonali, 33, is in her final trimester of pregnancy. This has gripped her family with anxiety as they await her return lest she delivers her baby in jail or an unknown land in Bangladesh, giving rise to a complicated citizenship crisis.

Before she was deported, Sweety worked as a scrap collector in Delhi.

Both women and their families belong to the Birbhum district in West Bengal. As per news reports, the migrants were picked up from around Delhi's Rohini.

"About one and a half month ago, I spoke to Sweety. All she does is cry helplessly and it has worried us a lot," Amir told the Quint, claiming that they have been imprisoned in a jail in Chapainawabgan.

The court order notice as accessed by The Quint shows that the court cited the deportees' Aadhaar card numbers and residential addresses as proof.

"It is necessary to inform the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh for the purpose of taking steps to push back the accused to India as per the law," read the notice.

The court order notice from a Bangladesh court on the migrants who were wrongfully deproted.

(Photo: Accessed by The Quint)

The court’s order has been officially sent to the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, as confirmed by Safirul Islam, an MP from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and chairman of Migrant Workers Welfare Board in West Bengal.

"Samirul Islam and Mamata Banerjee are helping us, and the local administration has also been helpful," stated Amir.

Islam wrote about the court order on X, noting, "This exposes yet again how the anti-Bengal BJP cruelly targets poor Bengali-speaking people, labelling them as Bangladeshis and deporting them for no other reason than their language. We still remember how a few of the BJP’s agents in Bengal tried to portray them as Rohingyas. Those attacks didn’t spare even me or my family."

TMC's Safirul Islam has been helping Sweety Bibi and Sonali Khatun's family.

Speaking with The Quint, Amir added, "While we're hopeful now that they will return, after all that has happened, no one from the village here wants to go to Delhi to work. But if we stay here, there is no work. So where do we go?"

Sweety and Sonali's case represents many other such cases that took place between May and July this year, in which Bengali migrants, mostly Muslims, who were suspected to be "undocumented foreigners" or "illegal immigrants" were picked up and pushed into Bangladesh.

TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, referring to Calcutta HC's order, had stated few weeks ago: "The High Court gave an order stating that the FRR (Foreigners Regional Registration) deportation is completely illegal, stating this in open court. Furthermore, it has stated that they must be brought back to India within four weeks. If they see Bengal (or Bengali things), they call it Bangladesh; if someone speaks Bengali, they say they must be arrested."

The anxieties of families like Sweety and Sonali have only amplified with time given the unending wait, uncertainty, and targeted attacks against Bengali speaking-Muslims migrants.

Bhodu Sheikh, Sonali's father, had told The Wire, “I pray that my grandchild is born in my country. “We are anxious about new problems over citizenship.”

The Supreme Court had also heard pleas concerning the detention and deportation of these migrants, including Sonali. Arguing in front of Bench of Justices Surya Kant, Joymalya Bagchi, and Vipul M Pancholi, advocate Prashant Bhushan had observed:

"This lady has been pushed out forcibly from the country... she is pregnant without any proof that she is a foreigner. They are saying Bengali language is a Bangladeshi language. Therefore, people speaking Bengali are Bangladeshis. How can any authority push out any person without any determination whether so and so is a foreigner?"