There has been no survey and the figures are mostly anecdotal, says a senior police officer

Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai has claimed that “a large number of people have come from other countries, especially Bangladesh, and settled in Bengaluru and other cities of Karnataka” to buttress the idea of Assam-like National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the State. The government, however, seems to have no estimate of the number of illegal immigrants in the State.

While illegally immigrated Bangladeshis are said to be working as labourers in coffee estates in Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru districts and as construction labourers in Bengaluru, apart from being involved in garbage segregation in the city, the government does not have an estimate of their numbers.

“There has been no survey and the figures are mostly anecdotal,” said a senior police officer, who added that most estimates were made by politicians.

BJP politicians from Bengaluru (Tejasvi Surya, P.C. Mohan, and Arvind Limbavali), besides those from Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru districts (K.G. Bopaiah and C.T. Ravi) have often claimed large-scale illegal immigration of Bangladeshis. The numbers have varied from a few thousand to over a lakh. JD(S) leader and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had said in 2015 that there were 40,000 illegal Bangladeshis in the State.

The only data available is with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), which says 837 foreigners from 20 countries registered with them are overstaying their visa tenures in the State. Most of them are from African countries and less than 200 of them are from Bangladesh. A senior FRRO official said Bangladeshis who come for medical treatment and on student visas make up most of those who register with the FRRO.

Elusive numbers

In response to Bengaluru Central MP Mr. Mohan’s question on illegal immigrants living in the State and measures taken to deport them, the Union Home Ministry had replied in July 2019 that as per information received from the Karnataka government, 143 cases had been registered against illegal Bangladeshi nationals in the State and 114 illegal Bangladeshi nationals had been deported from the State. This data pertains to those who had registered with the FRRO.

While Mr. Bommai has claimed to have held two meetings over the NRC, the State Home Department seems to be clueless of any such proposal. “No proposal has been made or even oral deliberations held over the NRC till date,” a senior Home Department official told The Hindu. “The Home Minister has indeed held a review meeting on the issue of foreign nationals involved in crime and issued directions to hasten their deportation. This, however, is not the same as the NRC,” an official said.

‘Upcoming detention centre not linked to NRC’

The detention centre for foreign nationals coming up on the city’s outskirts, near Nelamangala, is not linked to the proposed National Register of Citizens, Karnataka police officials have said.

The proposal for the detention centre was made by Bengaluru city police in 2012, pre-dating the NRC even in Assam, to mainly deal with overstaying African nationals allegedly indulging in crime. The proposal came through in 2017 when the then Home Minister, G. Parameshwara, gave his nod.

An old hostel building near Nelamangala has been re-purposed into a detention centre, and it is likely to open in a few weeks. “The facility has a maximum capacity to hold 50 persons and no more,” a senior official said.

The centre is “nationality neutral” and is a temporary detention facility to keep foreign nationals being deported, police officials said. Two kinds of persons can be detained at the centre: foreign nationals who have registered with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) and have violated visa terms, and foreign nationals not registered with the FRRO, arrested for crimes in the city, who do not have valid documents, said an official. Such persons may be deported directly or put on trial. Either way they will be deported, but until such time they will be detained in the centre, the official said.