Infiltration and Identity Fraud: Maharashtra’s Crackdown Exposes the Scale of Illegal Migration Network

A staggering 2,376 illegal Bangladeshi nationals were deported from Maharashtra in 2025 alone — a dramatic spike compared to previous years — laying bare what the state government describes as an entrenched and organised pattern of illegal infiltration, forged documentation and unauthorised settlements.

The figures, presented in the Legislative Council by Minister of State for Home Yogesh Kadam during the budget session, follow a key policy shift introduced through a May circular by the Union government.

The circular permits states to directly deport identified foreign nationals once their nationality is established through evidence, bypassing the earlier requirement of registering FIRs and completing lengthy court proceedings.

Until recently, deportation followed a prosecution-led route: arrest, FIR, trial and conviction.

Now, authorities can administratively hand over confirmed foreign nationals to the Border Security Force without waiting for judicial closure.

The result has been a sharp rise in deportations — from 109 in 2021, 77 in 2022, 127 in 2023 and 202 in 2024 — to 2,376 in 2025.

The numbers reflect more than a procedural change. They expose what officials describe as a deep-rooted network that enabled illegal migrants to blend seamlessly into urban ecosystems.

In Mumbai alone, 104 cases were registered this year against illegal Bangladeshi nationals, with 372 arrests made during special verification drives.

Of these, 1,062 individuals were deported from the city in 2025. So far this year, 27 have been deported, while 248 remain in custody pending verification.

Police operations — led by local units in coordination with the Anti-Terrorism Squad — have intensified across slum clusters, coastal belts, railway station zones and major market precincts.

Each police station in Maharashtra has constituted a five-member special team to identify and trace illegal foreign nationals. The government has indicated that a Special Task Force may be formed if required to escalate the campaign further.

What has caused greater alarm, however, is not merely the presence of illegal migrants, but the scale at which forged Indian identity documents were allegedly procured.

According to the discussion in the House, many of those identified had secured Aadhaar cards, voter identity cards, PAN cards, ration cards, birth certificates and even electricity connections.

Such documentation effectively allowed them to project a legitimate claim to residence and access welfare schemes, employment opportunities and public services.

The Calling Attention notice moved by BJP MLC Pravin Darekar highlighted concerns about illegal settlements, unauthorised hawking and document fraud.

Data tabled in the House revealed that between January and December 2025, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation took action against over 1.20 lakh unauthorised hawkers, recovering fines of Rs 1.56 crore — a figure that underscores the scale of informal occupation in the city’s commercial spaces.

The state government has responded with stricter document scrutiny and mandatory labour verification norms.

Construction companies have been directed to submit worker details to local police stations, and action is being initiated against contractors who fail to comply.

Kadam also claimed that many of the illegal migrants allegedly entered India through West Bengal, where forged identity documents were reportedly arranged before they moved onward to Maharashtra.

He stressed the need to address the issue at its source through stronger inter-state coordination.

To streamline deportation processes, the state has sanctioned Rs 20 crore for a dedicated detention centre to house foreign nationals awaiting deportation.

The tender process has been completed, and the facility is expected to provide infrastructure for holding individuals pending formal handover.

The crackdown signals a shift from reactive policing to intelligence-driven identification and administrative deportation.

Yet the scale of document fraud and unauthorised occupation revealed in the process has reignited debate over internal security, governance lapses and systemic vulnerabilities that allowed illegal entrants to obtain official credentials and embed themselves within the country’s socio-economic framework.

As verification drives intensify, the state government has appealed to citizens to report suspicious movements, asserting that internal security will not be compromised and that deportations will continue under the revised framework.

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