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Guwahati: The Patriotic People’s Front, Assam (PPFA), has urged the Union government to implement a strict policy to detect and deport illegal migrants, particularly those from Bangladesh. In a statement, the regional forum expressed concern over the growing number of illegal residents and criticized successive governments for failing to address the issue effectively.
The PPFA highlighted alarming figures, citing a 2016 Rajya Sabha debate where it was revealed that over 20 million illegal Bangladeshi nationals were residing across India. This number had previously been estimated at 12 million before 2014. The forum also pointed out the increasing influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar through the porous Bangladesh border, further exacerbating the problem.
The group emphasized that Assam had raised the alarm about illegal migration as early as the 1980s, during the Assam Agitation from 1979 to 1985. However, it lamented that neither the central government nor intellectuals from mainland India took the issue seriously at the time. “Had the concerns of the Assamese people been addressed then, the country could have avoided today’s crisis,” the statement asserted.
