Cross-Border Migration in South Asia

Definition

Illegal migration refers to movement across national borders in violation of the immigration laws of the destination country. It has become one of the most volatile and contentious issues in Indian politics because of the socio-political conflicts it has brought in its wake.

• India faces the problem along its northern and north-eastern borders, poorly connected to mainland India; open and porous borders have let communities move with ease.
• The hardest challenge is nation-building — the Northeast has approximately 220 ethnic groups across the eight states and adjoining states, with regional ethnic demands ranging from greater autonomy to separate statehood and even independence.
• Assam illustrates the pattern — competition for scarce land, resources and jobs; the agitation by AASU; the Assam Accord of 1985; the National Register of Citizens.
• Migrants from Bangladesh have been used as political tools, with forged documents such as voter identity cards influencing elections.
• Identity crisis → similar linguistic and ethnic identities make migrants difficult to identify; conflict over scarce resources, economic opportunity and cultural dominance follows, along with political instability as elites mobilise popular perception against migrants to win power.
• Security dimension → Pakistan’s ISI has been active in Bangladesh supporting militant movements in the Northeast; militants are alleged to enter among migrants; trafficking of women and human smuggling have become rampant across borders.
• Structural driver → when a country in the region grows faster and reaches higher living standards, maintaining border controls against illegal migration becomes increasingly difficult.
• Myanmar borders Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh; the porous frontier is a gateway for insurgents, and India holds that cooperation with Myanmar is necessary to solve insurgency at home. Bhutan has respected India’s security concerns, though ULFA militants set up bases there and had to be evicted. Bangladesh appears cordial on the surface but is wary of India’s dominant influence; India has raised the issue of illegal migrants at several political and diplomatic levels without response.
• Institutional gap → SAARC, the only platform for multilateral cooperation in the area, is at best a weak organisation with a mandate that expressly forbids involvement in bilateral disputes — which has pushed India towards bilateral and sub-regional channels such as BIMSTEC.
• Remedies → short term: fencing borders, even development of the states, augmentation of border-guarding manpower. Long term: legislative action, stronger intelligence infrastructure, diplomatic engagement with neighbouring nations.

Contention I — illegal migration

• India and Bangladesh share the world’s longest land border, approximately 3,700 km. Estimates suggest 30 to 40 million Bangladeshis are in India illegally, with notable demographic change in regions such as Tripura.
• Causes → lack of recognition, since Bangladesh has not fully acknowledged the extent of the problem; poor border management; push factors such as floods, poverty and historical conflict including the 1971 war; pull factors such as porous borders, corruption among law enforcement, and political motives of electoral support.
• Challenges → trafficking of drugs, humans and cattle; fake voter ID cards threatening democratic processes; communal tensions from demographic shifts, affecting the secular character of society; economic strain on infrastructure, healthcare and education.
• Potential solutions → enhanced border management including electrified fences aligned with regional security dynamics; addressing corruption among law enforcement agencies; the Gujral Doctrine approach of cooperating with Bangladesh on the underlying causes of poverty and unemployment; effective data management through the National Population Register; and a work permit system, which would reduce corruption, maintain accurate records, build goodwill, combat organised crime and protect migrants from exploitation.

Regional Flashpoint: Myanmar

On 1 February 2021 the military — the Tatmadaw — launched a coup, declared the November 2020 election invalid and imposed a state of emergency.

• Nationwide protests met a brutal crackdown — arrests of elected leaders and journalists, live fire on demonstrators.
• Deep roots: Myanmar has been mired since independence (1948) in one of the world’s longest civil conflicts; resistance forces — ethnic organisations and the People’s Defence Force — control large parts of the territory; the economy has contracted.
• Regional spillover: refugee outflows, illegal gambling, drugs, human trafficking and scam operations; the Rohingya crisis strains Bangladesh (Cox’s Bazar) and others; statelessness raises the risk of radicalisation.
• The ASEAN test: a softer line than the West, mindful of China; consensus-based, non-interference diplomacy makes unanimous action hard. Indonesia and Malaysia are most willing to speak out, while Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam largely follow China’s lead — the crisis challenges ASEAN’s centrality and credibility.
• For India: Myanmar is a strategic land–maritime gateway to South-East Asia. The crisis has stalled connectivity projects and development assistance; tens of thousands of displaced people shelter across India’s north-eastern states, with pressure on border management (FMR, fencing).
• Way forward: humanitarian assistance, support for the displaced, regional stability, and quiet channels of dialogue with and between the junta and the opposition, including armed ethnic groups.