Neighbours in standoff over migrants

Bangladeshi border guards near the border with India in the Panchagar district of Bangladesh. They patrol the border on foot and bicycles 24 hours a day. — Atul Loke/The New York Times

INDIA and Bangladesh share one of the longest borders in the world, through which impoverished Bangladeshis often slip unnoticed in search of jobs and smugglers ferry goods as varied as cattle, gold and raisins.

But that sievelike, roughly 4,000km border has increasingly become a fault line between the traditionally friendly neighbours.