A total of 19 Bangladeshi nationals, including 17 women, returned to their own nation on Sunday after serving two years in jail in India.

The foreign nationals were sent back to Bangladesh through the Indo-Bangla border at Benapole in Jashore.

The Indian immigration police handed over the Bangladeshis to Benapole immigration police, a media report quoted the officer-in-charge of Benapole Checkpost Immigration Police, Ahsan Habib, as saying.

The Bangladeshis, according to the report, entered India illegally in 2018 with the help of middlemen.

They landed in the Indian police net while they were working as house help in Mumbai.

Habib said an Indian court sentenced all the 19 Bangladeshi nationals to two years in jail.

The police official further said as their jail term was over, they were released and NGO Rescue Foundation put them in a shelter home.

The Bangladeshi nationals were sent back through a special travel permit issued by the Indian government.

The returnees have been identified as Marium Khatun, 20, Fatima Aktar, 22, Khadiza Parvin, 23, Sonia Begum, 23, Shefali Khatun, 30, Sharmin Khatun, 18, Rima Begum, 18, Taniya Khanam, 20, Rahima Khatun, 21, Nasrin, 19, Beuty Khatun, 20, Ruma Begum, 21, Romena Khanam, 22, Silpi Begum, 23, Asma, 20, Poly Khanam, 22, Afroza Khatun, 23, Azadul Islam, 21, and Rubel Rana, 23.