Pune Police offers refuge to Bangladeshi couple awaiting passage home

PUNE: A room in the premises of a police station in Maharashtra's Pune city has become a temporary shelter for a Bangladeshi couple, who are desperately waiting to return to their home country and reunite with their three children, whom they left behind in search of a livelihood in India.
The couple has spent over two years in jail for entering the country illegally, and the court has ordered the police to make necessary arrangements to send them back home, an official said on Tuesday.
Speaking to PTI, the couple said an agent had brought them to Pune from Bangladesh in February 2019, with the promise of getting them jobs with a company. However, they got a rude shock, when the woman was asked to work in the red-light area in Budhwar Peth.
"When I resisted and refused to work in the area, the agent got my husband arrested, as neither of us had a valid passport or visa. After I somehow managed to flee the place and reached the police station, I was also arrested for entering the country without valid documents," the woman recounted.
A court later convicted the couple and sentenced them to two years and three months in jail.
"The agent brought us here promising a job in a company. If we had known that we would get in trouble here, we would not have crossed the border without passports and visa. The agent, who had brought us here, got us arrested. But after spending over two years in jail, we now want to go back to our country and be with our children," the woman said.
Inspector Rajendra Landage of Faraskhana police station said the couple, hailing from Satkhira district of Bangladesh, had been arrested and charged under relevant sections of The Foreigners Act and The Passport Act.
"Following their release, the court ordered the police to make necessary arrangements to send the couple back to their country. While we are trying to get in touch with the Bangladesh embassy through the Pune police's special branch, it has been two months since the couple was given an accommodation inside the police station," the official said.
The police personnel have been taking care of the couple's needs by providing them food and other daily essentials.
"On the occasion of Bakri Eid, we even gave them a set of new clothes and they celebrated the festival with our staff," Landage said, adding that the Bangladesh embassy has been apprised about the couple, but the police are yet to hear from them.