Illegal immigrants from Banglaesh, Myanmar | Pushback, detention and deportation laws explained

India has intensified action against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar, with authorities using three distinct but often conflated mechanisms: pu...

What Happened

India has intensified action against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar, with authorities using three distinct but often conflated mechanisms: pushback, detention, and deportation.
A "pushback" is an informal border procedure — security forces intercept a foreigner at the international border and use operational discretion to push the individual back across the border without arrest or judicial process.
India pushed back at least 2,369 people between May 2025 and January 2026, among them 126 Indian nationals and 38 persons from Myanmar, highlighting the risk of erroneous identification.
The Ministry of Home Affairs issued a new deportation policy directing states and UTs to verify the credentials of suspected illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar within 30 days; failure to complete verification triggers automatic deportation proceedings.
States are mandated to establish dedicated holding centres with specified minimum standards — including separate enclosures for men and women, medical dispensaries, and a prohibition on separating family members.
In "emergency situations," the BSF or Assam Rifles may directly deport individuals from holding centres without a court order, under a quasi-judicial nodal authority framework.
The Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, which came into force on September 1, 2025, consolidated older statutes and raised penalties for illegal entry to up to five years' imprisonment and a Rs. 5 lakh fine.

Static Topic Bridges

Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 — India's New Immigration Framework

The Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 — enacted on April 4, 2025 and effective from September 1, 2025 — repealed and consolidated four older statutes: the Foreigners Act, 1946; the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920; the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939; and the Foreigners Order, 1948. The new Act mandates valid passports and visas for all foreign nationals, establishes the Bureau of Immigration as the nodal authority, and significantly raises penalties for illegal entry, overstay, and use of forged travel documents. Carriers (airlines, shipping lines) are also held accountable for non-compliance.

Illegal entry without valid passport or travel documents: up to 5 years' imprisonment and/or Rs. 5 lakh fine.
Use or supply of forged or fraudulently obtained travel documents: 2–7 years' imprisonment with fines of Rs. 1–10 lakh.
Overstay or other visa violations: up to 3 years' imprisonment and/or Rs. 3 lakh fine.
Police officers of Head Constable rank and above can arrest foreigners without warrant for Act violations.
The Act requires hotels, universities and hospitals to report details of foreign guests or patients.

Connection to this news: The pushback and deportation operations are the enforcement manifestation of the legal overhaul that the 2025 Act introduced. Understanding the Act's structure is essential to evaluating whether the current operations — including the informal "pushback" — are within or outside its framework.

Pushback vs. Deportation vs. Detention — Legal Distinctions

These three terms describe fundamentally different legal processes. Deportation is a formal legal proceeding: the State identifies a person as an illegal immigrant, issues a deportation order through a competent authority, coordinates with the receiving country to confirm nationality, and then physically removes the individual through official channels. Detention refers to holding a person in a designated facility (holding centre) pending determination of nationality and issuance of a deportation order. Pushback, by contrast, is an extrajudicial act — there is no stated rule, no formal order, and no judicial oversight; border security forces physically push individuals across the border using operational discretion.

Deportation requires the receiving country to officially accept the deportee as its national — if the origin country denies nationality, the person risks indefinite detention.
The Supreme Court has held (in cases involving refugees and foreigners) that the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 extends to all persons on Indian soil, including foreigners and undocumented persons.
Pushback has no explicit statutory basis under either the old Foreigners Act or the new Immigration and Foreigners Act; it operates in a legal grey zone as a border management practice.
Non-refoulement — the international principle prohibiting return of a person to a country where they face serious risk of persecution — is not part of domestic Indian statute law, as India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Connection to this news: The conflation of pushback with deportation in public discourse obscures significant legal distinctions — deportation has due process safeguards while pushback does not. Understanding this distinction is critical to UPSC-level analysis of migration governance and rights.

Article 21 and Fundamental Rights of Non-Citizens

Article 21 of the Constitution guarantees that no person shall be deprived of their life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that "person" in Article 21 is not confined to citizens — it extends to all human beings on Indian soil, including foreigners and illegal immigrants. In National Human Rights Commission v. State of Arunachal Pradesh (1996), the Supreme Court held that the State is bound to protect the life and liberty of every human being, be they a citizen or otherwise, directing protection of Chakma refugees from forcible expulsion without due process.

Article 21 rights of non-citizens include protection against arbitrary detention, right to a fair hearing before deportation, and freedom from torture or inhumane treatment in detention.
Articles 14 (equality before law) and 22 (protection against arbitrary arrest and detention) also extend to non-citizens.
However, Articles 15, 16, 19 and several other rights are confined to citizens only.
The principle of non-refoulement, while not codified in Indian domestic law, has been applied by Indian courts as an extension of Article 21 in refugee-related cases.

Connection to this news: The pushback of 126 Indian nationals alongside undocumented immigrants in 2025–26 operations demonstrates the risk of violating Article 21 when informal mechanisms replace formal identification and due process — a core concern raised by the NHRC and courts.

India–Bangladesh and India–Myanmar Border Management

India shares a 4,156 km border with Bangladesh and a 1,643 km border with Myanmar. The Bangladesh border is largely fenced (managed by the BSF), while the Myanmar border — much of it running through difficult terrain and tribal areas in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram — is significantly less controlled. India and Myanmar had a Free Movement Regime (FMR) allowing border residents to travel up to 16 km inside either country without a visa; the Indian government announced suspension of the FMR in February 2024. The Bangladesh border faces persistent illegal crossing driven by economic migration, periodic violence, and natural disasters in Bangladesh.

India does not have a formal refugee law or a national refugee policy; the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol have not been ratified by India.
The National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, finalised in 2019, is the primary domestic instrument for determining citizenship among long-resident populations in the state.
The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 — which applied only to Assam and made it harder to detect illegal migrants — was struck down by the Supreme Court in Sarbananda Sonowal v. Union of India (2005).

Connection to this news: The distinct legal and operational challenges posed by the Bangladesh and Myanmar borders — different terrain, different legal regimes, and different bilateral relationships — shape why pushback, detention, and deportation manifest differently in practice.

Key Facts & Data

India-Bangladesh border: approximately 4,156 km; India-Myanmar border: approximately 1,643 km.
2,369 persons were pushed back between May 2025 and January 2026, including 126 Indian nationals (highlighting misidentification risk).
The Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 (effective September 1, 2025) replaced four colonial-era immigration laws.
Illegal entry penalty under the 2025 Act: up to 5 years' imprisonment and Rs. 5 lakh fine.
States must verify suspected illegal immigrants' credentials within 30 days under the new MHA deportation policy.
India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol.
The Free Movement Regime (FMR) with Myanmar was suspended in February 2024.
NHRC v. State of Arunachal Pradesh (1996): Supreme Court held Article 21 protects non-citizens from forcible expulsion without due process.
Sarbananda Sonowal v. Union of India (2005): Supreme Court struck down the IMDT Act as unconstitutional.