Crackdown in Bengal, Assam pushes illegal immigration racket south

New Delhi, July 18 (AHN) The ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration in West Bengal and Assam has led the touts to revise their strategy.

Touts are already identifying illegal immigrants present in these two states and are trying to quickly shift them to other parts of the country, security officials have learnt.

An official said that identifying and deporting illegal immigrants is a massive exercise. Years of neglect have allowed the problem to grow, resulting in a large number of illegal immigrants living in India. Police forces in Assam and West Bengal, along with the Border Security Force (BSF), have been working to identify and deport such individuals. However, the official said the drive has only recently gathered momentum, and many illegal immigrants are still believed to be living in the northeastern states and parts of North India.

"The touts who facilitate illegal immigration have changed their strategy following the crackdown. They are now trying to move illegal immigrants to different parts of the country, particularly the southern states, where scrutiny is currently lower than in many other regions," officials said.

Earlier this week, the Mangaluru police in Karnataka identified Dilawar Hussain, Rasul Islam and Moyiddin Islam as the kingpins of a major illegal immigration racket. They were working in coordination with touts in West Bengal. The investigation points towards a major inter-state illegal immigration racket, officials said.

Another official said that the strategy has been fast changing since a crackdown on this racket was announced. These touts have reduced operations in states which are taking action against this menace. They are now quickly shifting operations to other parts of the country.

The official said the shift in strategy has made the task of security agencies more challenging. "Those involved are now trying to turn this into a nationwide problem by moving illegal immigrants to different parts of the country, which has further increased the burden on security agencies," the official said.

An Intelligence Bureau official said that this is a well-planned operation that also involves foreign funding. Stressing the Indian population, robbing locals of their jobs and effecting demographic changes has been a long-term strategy of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). This strategy was devised by the ISI post the Bangladesh liberation war when Pakistan realised that it could not win a conventional war with India.

The official said that these ISI-backed touts will not stay quiet even if there is a major crackdown. There is a lot of money that is involved, and the pressure from Pakistan too is very high.

Further, the syndicate is a massive one and is spread across multiple states. The raids conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) revealed that this is a well-oiled mechanism that operates from West Bengal, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

The ED’s probe is not only about illegal immigration. It has found that this syndicate was involved in a major human trafficking racket which also involved a lot of black money. The raids conducted at 13 different locations also led to the seizure of Rs 40 lakh in cash and gold.

The probe also revealed a foreign link to this racket. UK-based handlers who operate transnational hawala channels had been sending illicit funds into India to facilitate this racket.

Officials say that this indicates the scale of the racket and the extent to which these ISI-backed elements could go to facilitate illegal immigration. The ongoing crackdown in Assam and West Bengal would not deter these touts, and they are now moving operations to other states.

States, where scrutiny over illegal immigration is relatively low, have become the primary targets of these touts. Backed by pressure from Pakistan and driven by the huge financial gains involved, they are likely to continue these activities for as long as they can, the official added.