How human smugglers along Bangladesh borders bring in illegal migrants | Exclusive

The India Today report from inside the human-smuggling rings last year shed light on the entire modus of the cross-border racket - from illegal entries to securing Indian IDs fraudulently.

As police probe the alleged Bangladeshi angle in the Jahangirpuri riots, an India Today report from inside the human-smuggling rings last year shed light on the entire modus of the cross-border racket - from illegal entries to securing Indian IDs fraudulently.

India Today’s special investigation in January 2021 found human smugglers doubling as money changers in West Bengal, bringing illegal migrants via relatively weak defences along the international border.

Banka, who operated Sabhar Enterprise money-changing facility at the Petrapole integrated check post, about 80 km from Kolkata, solicited Rs 15,000 per head to facilitate illegal migration into India.

He confessed that people and smugglers worked more closely on both sides of the Indo-Bangladesh border.

"Earlier, people used to cross for Rs 3,000, Rs 4,000, Rs 8,000, Rs 10,000. Now that has gone up to Rs 15,000, Rs 16,000, Rs 17,000. People are demanding as per their wish," he told India Today's investigative reporter.

Also Read: | GRP arrests five, including two Bangladeshi citizens for aiding illegal entry of Rohingyas

Banka hinted that the ring also organised forged IDs of both countries to help free migrants in the event of potential arrests by border guards on either side.