By IANS,
Shillong : Seven illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, working as coal miners in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district, were caught by BSF troopers Monday as they were trying to cross back into their country, an official said.
The Bangladeshi nationals were held early Monday from Umkiang village near the India-Bangladesh border, said Border Security Force (BSF) spokesman Ravi Gandhi.
The troopers also seized a mobile phone with a Bangladeshi SIM card and some cash in Indian and Bangladesh currency notes from the Bangladesh nationals, Gandhi said.
During preliminary questioning, the detained Bangladeshi immigrants said they were working as coal miners near Khlierihat area.
Meghalaya shares a 443-km border with Bangladesh, part of which is porous, hilly, unfenced and prone to frequent infiltration.
A government official said the main factors responsible for the influx of Bangladeshi nationals to Meghalaya are the high demand for cheap labour in coal mining areas, manual jobs and porous and poor security along the border.
“We cannot deny that there are no illegal Bangladeshi nationals working in the coal mines across Meghalaya since the local tribesmen don’t dare to enter the coal pits,” the official told IANS on condition of anonymity.
Each miner gets paid on hourly basis or the number of coal-filled trays they are able to scrape. Typically, an experienced miner gets about Rs.300-Rs.500 daily, which is a substantial amount given their economic background.
The coal is extracted by primitive surface mining method called “rat-hole” mining that entails clearing ground vegetation and digging pits ranging from five to 100 square metres to reach the coal seams.
Workers and children go deep into these holes and extract the coal using traditional tools. Makeshift bamboo ladders take miners down into the pits to chip away through two-foot-high tunnels.
Meghalaya has total coal reserves of 640 million tonnes. The coal is high in sulphur content and is mostly of sub-bituminous type.