THREE Nigerians have been arrested for illegally entering Bangladesh from India through the Tamabil land port on Thursday, July 8.

They were found by a team of intelligence officials acting on a tip-off, and are being detained in Sylhet.

The detainees who have been identified as Emmanuel Nnamdi Ohagwam, 42, his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Favour Osinachi Ohagwam, and Paul Ebeodi Okechukwu, 27.

A laptop, nine mobile phone handsets, three passports, a driving licence, an Indian Aadhaar card, a Nigerian National ID card, $1,600, and र280 in cash were seized from the detainees before they were handed over to the Gowainghat Police Station.

Confirming the matter to Dhaka Tribune, Gowainghat Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Parimal Dev said that Nigerian nationals were now being questioned.

Earlier on June 29, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) detained a 31-year-old Nigerian national named Onibukuu Staley in Sylhet for allegedly sneaking into Bangladesh from India through the Tamabil land port.

There have been several arrests on Africans for alleged illegal entry into India from Bangledesh. In 2019, at least 14 Nigerians aged between 22 and 48 years were arrested for this offence.

The police said they suspected a racket where Nigerians unable to secure Indian visas were entering India illegally, after paying between $500 – $600 to gain access through Tripura, a hilly state in northeast India, bordered on three sides by Bangladesh, and home to a diverse mix of tribal cultures and religious groups.

However, since June 2020, more than 70 Nigerians have been arrested by the Bangladesh security operatives, in what some have described as a crackdown on Nigerians in the South Asian Country, but the police said those arrested had engaged in online scams, drug smuggling and illegal entry into the country.