West Bengal migrant worker repatriated from Bangladesh after family moves Calcutta HC

Amir Sheikh, a 19-year-old migrant worker from Kaliachak in West Bengal’s Malda district who was allegedly detained from Rajasthan in May and “pushed back” into Bangladesh, was reunited with his family on Wednesday.

Mr. Amir’s family members said the Border Security Force (BSF) personnel handed him over to the Basirhat police in the State’s North 24 Parganas district.

Earlier this month, Ziyem Sheikh, the father of Mr. Amir, had filed a habeas corpus petition before the Calcutta High Court.

The matter was heard before the Division Bench of Justices Tapabrata Chakraborty and Reetobroto Kumar Mitra. The counsel appearing for the BSF said Mr. Amir attempted to cross over to Indian territory on Tuesday and since he could not produce appropriate identification documents, he was apprehended and handed over to the officer in charge of the Basirhat police station.

Speaking to The Hindu, his family contested the BSF’s claims. “I got a call this morning asking me to pick up my son from Basirhat. All this is happening because we approached the court,” Mr. Ziyem said.

Refuting BSF’s claims

Trinamool Congress MP and chairperson of the West Bengal Migrant Welfare Board Samirul Islam also refuted the BSF’s claims of the migrant worker “inadvertently crossing the border”. He said an attempt was being made to “cover up the pushing back of the migrant worker into Bangladesh by the BSF and the Union government by repatriating him”.

“Amir Sheikh from Kaliachak in Malda was deported to Bangladesh by the Rajasthan police with the help of the BSF. From the very beginning, we stood by his family. We helped Amir’s father file a habeas corpus petition in the Calcutta High Court. Under pressure, the BSF has brought Amir back to West Bengal,” the MP said, adding that they even have the video Mr. Amir had recorded from Bangladesh.

‘He was deported’

“We will legally prove that Amir was deported by the BSF and that he did not go there voluntarily,” Mr. Islam said. He also pointed out that the migrant worker was in the custody of Bangladeshi authorities and had the family not approached the court, he would have continued to languish in detention in the neighbouring country.

The matter will come up for hearing on August 27.

Hundreds of Bengali-speaking migrant workers have faced alleged detention and harassment in different States and asked to produce documents to prove they are not Bangladeshi nationals.

Some migrant workers from West Bengal have claimed that they were “pushed into” the neighbouring country but later repatriated with the help of Indian authorities.