FLASH | Thursday, February 5, 2009 | Email | Print | 
More than 70,000 Bangladeshis missing since 2006
PTI | New Delhi
Home Ministry is perturbed over the continuous reports of overstaying and disappearance of Bangladeshis after their arrival in the country with more than 70,000 people travelling on valid documents still missing since 2006 in addition to illegal immigrants.
Home Ministry officials said that on an average about 21,000 Bangladeshi nationals, who come with regular visas, either go missing or have been overstaying every year in the country.
This is in addition to the scores of illegal immigrants who regularly cross the porous India-Bangla border.
"For overstaying, we have deported 15,000 Bangladeshi nationals in 2005, 12,000 Bangladeshis in 2006 and 11,500 in 2007," a Home Ministry official said.
In addition to that, 25,712 out of five lakh Bangladeshi nationals who came to India, did not return after expiry of their visas in 2007 while more than 24,000 remained missing in 2006 when 4.84 lakh had entered India with valid travel documents.
Interestingly, the BSF, which guards the 4,095-km-long porous Indo-Bangla border, has recently disclosed that 12 lakh Bangladeshis, who had entered India between 1972 and 2005 with valid documents, have not returned home.
The Government has adopted a multi-pronged approach to contain infiltration from Bangladesh which is posing serious security threat as probe in almost all recent serial blasts in different parts of the country has links to India's eastern neighbour, the official said.
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