India plans to deport thousands of Rohingya refugees

INDIA’S government is looking to deport an estimated 40 000 Rohingya Muslims back to Myanmar, including those registered with the UN refugee agency, a senior official has said.

Deputy Interior Minister Kiren Rijiju told Reuters news agency over the weekend that the Rohingya living in India were illegal immigrants and must be deported.

“As far as we are concerned they are all illegal immigrants,” Rijiju, a high-profile minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, said. “They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is illegal migrant will be deported.”

Their registration with the UN refugee agency was irrelevant, he said.

“We can’t stop them from registering. But we are not signatory to the accord on refugees,” he said.

Meenakshi Ganguly, the Human Rights Watch’s South Asia director, slammed the plan, noting India as a member of the UN Human Rights Council was aware of the risks Rohingya refugees faced if deported.

“India was part of the council that authorised a factfinding mission after tens of thousands of Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh from Mynamar, following a security operation in which hundreds were killed and raped,” she told Al Jazeera.

“So India is aware of the risks of abuse, and India has an international obligation to protect them.”

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has issued identity cards to about 16 500 Rohingya in India, which it says helps “prevent harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention and deportation” of refugees.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas have fled their homes since the first bout of violence were sparked in 2012. Since then they live in dispicable conditions in camps that New York Times dubbed 21st century concentration camps.

Thousands of Rohingyas were forced to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh after Myanmar security forces launched a crackdown in the wake of a deadly attack late last year. Many of them crossed the border into India. Others have also fled to southeast Asia, often on rickety boats run by people-smuggling gangs

Rijiju told parliament last week that the central government had directed state authorities to identify and deport illegal immigrants, including Rohingya.

HRW’s Ganguly said she was worried that Rijiju’s comments could encourage vigilante violence against the Rohingya community in India.

She also questioned the practicality of rounding up and expelling thousands of people scattered across the country.— Al jazeera.