The Delhi Police, in two separate crackdowns on illegally staying foreign nationals, detained 18 Bangladeshi immigrants, 16 from Seemapuri in Shahdara and two from Mandawali village in East Delhi, police said on Monday.
During interrogation, all of them confessed to have crossed over to India and entered West Bengal about 18 years ago through a porous border in the darkness without encountering Border Security force (BSF), an official said.
Initially, they stayed in the Cooch Behar area before moving to Delhi and then shifting to Haryana where they started working at brick kilns (bhatta) as they provided them with livelihood and being situated away from the residential areas and villages, gave them anonymity to hide their identities, he added.
Over a period of time, they settled down there, raised their family and continued to live and work without legal status, the cop said.
The kilns that look for cheap labour hired them without checking their documents or antecedents, the cop revealed.
Similarly, the other two illegal immigrants, a couple, came to India in search of an opportunity to overcome poverty. Embarking on their journey from their native villages in Bangladesh by bus, they reached the India-Bangladesh border around six months ago. From there, they crossed over to India through agricultural fields. They continued their journey by train and eventually landed in Delhi, where they started working as vegetable vendors in Mandawali.
So far, approximately 900 illegal Bangladeshi nationals residing in the national capital have been identified and will be deported after proper verification, said Delhi Police.