The BGB officials said the most favoured destinations for migration for people from Bangladesh were the Gulf and European countries and India was not on their priority list. India shares more than 4,000 km of international border with Bangladesh.

Following the Assam violence in which more than 70 people were killed in clashes related to illegal migration of Bangladeshis, the BSF raised the issue with the BGB at the 36th DG level conference last week.

“When we raised the issue of illegal migration and human trafficking from their side, the Bangladeshi officials were outright dismissive. They refused to accept the fact that any kind of illegal migration was taking place. They gave all sorts of bizarre explanations like higher GDP growth to prove their theories,” said a senior BSF official who attended the meeting.

The BSF also raised the issue of lack of regular meetings between nodal officers appointed to deal with border related disputes on regular basis. “The nodal officers from both sides are to meet quarterly in a year to address border related issues. Though we have appointed four DIG-level officers to discuss the issues, the BGB is yet to fill these posts. As a result, meetings are not taking place,” said the officer. The BGB has reportedly committed to fill up the vacancies by December.

The BSF-BGB talks also centered around the maintenance of border pillar posts.

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