'There are laws to deal with illegal immigrants': India again urges Bangladesh to clear pending verification

India on Friday reiterated that it is taking every measure to deal with "illegal immigrants", including from Bangladesh and deport them. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal during a regular press briefing on Friday (June 5) said that there are "laws to deal with them and they'll be accordingly dealt with."

He also said that several cases have been referred to Bangladesh to verify the nationality and once it is verified the Indian government will start the deportation process.

"Foreign nationals in India, if they are here illegally, including from Bangladesh, we have laws to deal with them and they'll be accordingly dealt with. As far as the deportation of these people is concerned, there is a bilateral mechanism in place and we refer these cases to the Bangladeshi side for them to verify the nationality of these people and once it is verified, then we take forward the deportation process,' said Jaiswal.

Cloe to 3,000 nationality verification requests pending with Bangladesh

Jiaswal, however, said that several such requests are pending with the Bangladesh authorities which is expected to get cleared soon.

"We have many of these requests which are still pending with the Bangladeshi side and if you hope and expect that they'll be expedited as soon as possible, so that the deportation of people who are illegally staying in India can be taken forward smoothly and efficiently," he added.

Till last month, the nationality verification process of nearly 3,000 suspected illegal Bangladeshi immigrants was pending with Dhaka.

Jaiswal in one of his pressers in May had said that 2,862 cases related to nationality verification were pending with Bangladesh, with some applications awaiting clearance for more than five years.