Bangladeshis: Unwanted guests in its neighboring countries

By Vanlalfaka Arakan 

Bangladeshi illegal immigrants to its neighboring countries cause great alarm in India and Burma. The illegal immigrants’ issues have rocked Indian Parliament many times and caused strong protests from students, civil societies and many intellectuals. The illegal immigrants pose great danger to the Arakanese people in western Burma, and the large influx of immigrants without any check could endanger Arakanese or cause minority in their own land. Some humanitarian activists are supporting these illegal immigrants without taking account of venerable people whose populations are very small.

            There were 67,906 tribal people out of the total population of 91,765 in 1876 in Tripura State in India (Naih). The tribal population of Tripura was reduced to minority people by these illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. In the 1991 Indian census, there were 353,345 tribal people out of 2,757,205 of total population (Naih). According to the Home Ministry’s statistics of India, there are 15 millions illegal immigrants in India from Bangladesh (Ved). According to Anand Kumar, there are around 20 million illegal immigrants. The Assam governor said that around 6,000 illegal immigrants are entering Assam everyday (Sandham). If the statement of the Assam governor is right, there would be 180,000 Bangladeshis a month and 2,160,000 a year. As India is a country with varieties of languages and people, it is hard to detect these illegal immigrants. The Bangladeshi immigrants speak Bengali, and India already has Bengali speaking people in India.

            The 2001 Bangladesh census states that there are 123.1 million people with a density of 834 people square kilometer. The population could be doubled to 250 millions by 2050 (sdndbd.com). The area of Bangladesh is 144,000 square kilometers. The Bangladeshi population is increasing immensely. Since 1965, the annual population growth has been estimated around two to three per cent. The reason for the enormous population growth in Bangladesh is that the Islamic law permits polygamy, and it is prevalent in Bangladesh (O’Donnell). Bangladeshis also take pride in having many children to provide cheap labors instead of quality of life. According to O’Donnell, most girls marry at the time of puberty or soon afterward. He further states that the government does not keep family planning as a priority. The initiative of family planning called “Family Planning Association” was twenty-first in the list of government priorities.

            As illegal immigrants are increasing, the chief ministers from five states in the north eastern states of India asked the federal government to increase security along the international borders (Illegal). For political reasons, these illegal immigrants got voting rights in India, and they are the vote bank of certain political parties. The Supreme Court of India issued notices to the federal government of India and federal Election Commission on 10 December 2004 to strike off the names of these illegal immigrants from voters’ lists (Reddy). The federal government of India took up the issues with Bangladeshi government, but there has not been much result. In January and February of 2003, the Union Home Minister urged the Bangladesh government to take back its people from India. APJ Abdul Kalam, the president of India also voiced his concerned over the illegal immigrants at the joint session of federal parliament (Pathania).

            The government of India took many initiatives to protect its border from intruders or illegal immigrants. It decided to fence its border with Bangladesh, a project that is to be completed by 2007. The government also established ‘border management’ within its ministry to focus attention on border related issue. The government has also decided to issue national identity card to track down illegal immigrants.

            Contrast to Indian government, the Burma government has done nothing much to check illegal immigrants. The district of Buthi Daun and Maung Daw in western Burma are now dominated by illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Now, these illegal immigrants are spread all over to Arakan State and other parts of Burma. The illegal Muslims are now claiming themselves to be of the “Rohingyas tribe,” but many Arakanese claim that there is no such word or people in Arakan history. The Arakan National Council, the apex body of political parties and civil societies of Arakan, has not recognized “Royingyas” and there is no “Rohingyas” in the list of ethnics group in Arakan National Council website. In 1978, the Burmese government expelled 200,000 to Bangladesh (O’Donnell).

            There are several reasons that cause large number of migrate to its neighboring countries. The first reason is a basic need. As the population is so large, food and shelters become scare because Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. The other reasons are economics and politics. After 1970s, there was political instability in Bangladesh (Datta). There is less employment opportunity and the neighboring countries are better in economics than Bangladesh. In Arakan State in Burma, they farm, fish and perform other prosperous economic activities.

            Unless the Bangladesh rejects Islamic laws of polygamy and enforces effective family planning, population will be growing. The growing population will make the country lag behind other countries, and it can also provoke its neighboring countries on the issue of illegal immigrants, because Bangladeshis will migrate to India and Burma as long as population is growing.

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