New Delhi, June 5 (AHN) Reaffirming its stance on illegal immigration, India on Friday said that all foreign nationals residing unlawfully in the country, including from Bangladesh, will be handled according to the established legal procedures, with deportations of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants set to move forward once pending nationality verification is completed by Dhaka.

Addressing a weekly media briefing in New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "All foreign nationals in India, if they are here illegally, including from Bangladesh, we have laws to deal with them, and they will be accordingly dealt with. As far as the deportation of these people are concerned, there is a bilateral mechanism in place, and we refer these cases to the Bangladeshi side for them to verify the nationality of these people, and once it is verified, then we take forward the deportation process.”

“We have many of these requests that are still pending with the Bangladeshi side, and we hope and expect that they will be expedited as soon as possible so that the deportation of people who are illegally staying in India can be taken forward smoothly and efficiently,” he added.

Last week, the MEA expressed hope that it would receive a prompt response from Bangladesh regarding the verification of more than 2,680 cases of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants residing in India.

Jaiswal said that the process could facilitate deportation under existing bilateral arrangements between the two countries once nationality is confirmed.

“All illegal nationals who are staying in India will be dealt with as per the law. In the case of Bangladesh, as I had informed you earlier, we have referred 2,680 cases or more than 2,680 cases to the Bangladeshi side for them to verify the nationality of those people that we have handed over the names of. Once this nationality verification is done, we will be in a position to deport these nationals of Bangladesh,” Jaiswal stated, while addressing the weekly media briefing.

“In many cases, I had told you earlier that these verifications have been pending for more than five years or so, and it is our expectation that we will receive an early response from Bangladesh on this particular issue so that the bilateral arrangement that we have between both countries, based on that, these people who are staying here can be sent back to or deported back to Bangladesh,” he had added.