Delhi deports seven Rohingya
LAST YEAR, GOVERNMENT TOLD SUPREME COURT ROHINGYAS WERE A THREAT TO SECURITY
Supreme Court rejects plea to halt expulsion of men who were in detention since 2012 |
In the first such move, India yesterday deported seven Rohingya to Myanmar after the Supreme Court refused to stop their deportation. Headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, the three-judge bench said that the seven Rohingyas were found as illegal immigrants by the court earlier and that Myanmar was ready to accept them as their nationals.
“We are not inclined to interfere on the decision taken,” the court said.
Last year, the union government had told the top court that Rohingyas were a threat to national security as they had links with terror groups. Yesterday, government lawyer Tushar Mehta informed the court that the embassy of Myanmar was ready to give a certificate of identity to the seven Rohingyas.
However, senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan stated that the government’s move was against the United Nations Charter on Human Rights.
Facing genocide
“The worst kind of genocide had taken place in Myanmar in which over 10,000 people were killed. Due to the genocide, people were killed and their properties destroyed and thousands of Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh and India. They are not illegal migrants, but refugees,” Bhushan told the court.
Those deported are Mohammad Jamal, Mohbul Khan, Jamal Hussain, Mohammad Yonus, Sabir Ahmad, Rahimuddin and Mohammad Salam, all aged between 26 and 32.
The men were detained in 2012 and kept in Cachar Central Jail in Assam’s Silchar since then. “The Rohingya are today handed over to Myanmar officials at the Moreh border post in Manipur. Myanmar has confirmed that they are its citizens,” Assam Additional Director General of Police (Border) Bhaskar J Mahanta told media.
Meanwhile, the UN said the forcible return of seven Rohingya Muslims violates international law. “The Indian Government has an international legal obligation to fully acknowledge the institutionalised discrimination, persecution, hate and gross human rights violations these people have faced in their country of origin,” UN Special Rapporteur on Racism Tendayi Achiume said.