Tripura: Four Nigerians held for entering India without papers

The official said preliminary investigation suggested the Nigerian nationals illegally entered the Indian territory through Bangladesh.

Some currency notes, four Nigerian passports and North East Frontier Railway tickets to Guwahati were recovered from their possession.

Amtali Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Anirban Das said the GRP hasn’t yet handed over the detainees to the police.

Tripura shares 856 km-long international border with Bangladesh, patches of which are still unfenced. These patches are guarded by BSF personnel but foreign nationals often try to sneak in, taking advantage of the semi-porous border. Most of these Nigerian nationals gain access to Indian soil through South Tripura district and then try to work their way towards other states of the country.

Earlier in July last year, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb said Nigeria saw no development and was ridden with poverty and violence. He claimed Nigerians were known for drug addiction, violence and drug trade throughout the world and said.

The authorities couldn’t give any figures of Nigerian nationals arrested in the last one year.