Gurugram chokes as harassed immigrant workers flee
GURUGRAM is choking — not from traffic or pollution, but from garbage and administrative negligence. In the name of a crackdown on "illegal immigrants", police actions have triggered a humanitarian and civic crisis. Hundreds of Bengali-speaking migrant workers (mostly from Assam and West Bengal) have fled overnight, terrified of harassment, arbitrary detention and lack of legal recourse. The result is an uncollected mountain of waste and a city in dysfunction. The exodus follows the Gurugram police's drive to identify undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants. Of the 250-plus picked up, only 10 were confirmed Bangladeshi. The rest were released, but the damage was already done. Word spread, fear deepened and the city's essential yet invisible workforce — sanitation workers, domestic helps and daily wage workers — vanished. Holding centres and detention camps have only reinforced fears of profiling and mistreatment.