Pregnant woman from Bengal forced into Bangladesh. Family has land records from five generations ago

Josnra Bibi’s eyes lit up when she saw us. She believed we had news of Sunali Khatun, her 25-year-old daughter stranded in Bangladesh.

“When will she be back?”

Sunali, who was a domestic worker in Delhi, was detained by the police on June 20 from the Bangali Basti in Rohini along with her husband, Danish, and eight-year-old son, Sabir.

Since May, thousands of Bengali-speaking migrant workers have been rounded up in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party and asked to prove that they were Indian citizens – and not undocumented immigrants.

In several cases, workers have been declared foreigners within days and forced into Bangladesh, despite being Indian citizens.

Josnra Bibi claims that is exactly what happened with Sunali, her husband and son – despite the family having land records going back five generations.

The Delhi raid

When the police arrived in the Rohini slum where Sunali lived, they showed them their Aadhaar cards and ration cards.

Sunali’s sister Karishma, who used to live next door to her in Rohini, said that the police demanded to see their birth certificates, which they did not have.

Sunali’s son’s birth certificate was lost to a fire in the slum just weeks before the police raid. But the police refused to believe them.

Six days after they were detained, Sunali, Danish and...

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