India: ‘Govt Continues to Violate Basic Rights of Rohingya Refugees’
Rohingya refugees in India continue to face constant discrimination and human rights violations, according to a new report detailing the widespread practice of their arbitrary and indefinite detention in the country.
The report titled “A Lifetime in Detention: Rohingya Refugees in India” was published by US-based Refugee International in collaboration with the Azadi Project. It is based on conversations with Rohingya detainees, their families, and lawyers. Some of the interviews were recorded during field visits to one of the detention centers.
The report claims that there are “gross violations of constitutional and human rights” with authorities even refusing to adhere to India’s own detention code or its commitments to international human rights treaties.
Rohingyas are considered as “world’s largest stateless people” with over 2 million living mostly in camps and slums in Bangladesh and neighboring countries after they fled Myanmar in 2017 following widespread violence and state persecution.
There are 22,500 Rohingya refugees registered in India with the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Their total population is estimated to be much higher.
The report emphasizes how there is very little attention paid to the living condition of Rohingya refugees in India and claims they have been subject to persecution by the state authorities. It claims there is an urgent need to pay attention to “hundreds of Rohingyas who are arbitrarily and indefinitely detained” in India where “the broader population remains in constant risk of detention or even deportation back to Myanmar.”
The report notes that “most Rohingya refugees are detained even after they have served their sentences.”
According to the UNHCR, there are 676 Rohingya in immigration detention across India, of which 608 have no ongoing court cases or sentences pending. It claims that some of these refugees, including women, children, and physically disabled and elderly are detained for over a decade without facing any criminal charges with little prospect of early release.
Describing the conditions inside the detention center, the report says that families are separated and spouses are not allowed time together with little or no legal aid provided. Children in the detention centers have no schools or playgrounds, and some have spent the better part of their lives detained, with no exposure to the outside world.
Most of the detainees also experience mental and physical health issues due to prolonged incarceration in unhygienic and cramped spaces. There have been several reports of deaths of Rohingyas inside detention centers including that of a death of an infant in July. The infant was reportedly killed after the security forces fired tear gas on a group of women detainees.
Victims of communalism
Some Rohingya detainees have protested their arbitrary and indefinite detention and have filed petitions in the country’s top court to protect their rights. However, the Narendra Modi-led government has refused to listen to such concerns.
Despite being a signatory to different human rights conventions, India is not a signatory of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and does not have any legal protection of the refugee population. Its policies regarding particular sets of refugees have been mostly based on ad hoc calculations. In recent years, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central government has been accused of using sectarian considerations in deciding its policies towards refugees.
Rohingyas continue to face stigmatization and persecution in India. Their presence is used by the ruling BJP in its attempts to political and religious polarization. It often links the presence of Rohingyas refugees with alleged illegal immigration from neighboring Bangladesh without ever providing any evidence for the same. It accuses opposition parties and civil society groups trying to protect the refugees as harming ‘the national interests.’
The petitions to India’s Supreme Court had called on the government to end the practice of indefinite detention of Rohingya refugees as it violates constitutional provisions of procedure established by law apart from violating the basic human rights.
However, in response to one of those petitions, the BJP-led government outrightly rejected Rohingya refugees having any right to reside and settle in the country. It said it does not recognize UNHCR’s refugee cards claiming the “continuance of Rohingyas illegal migration to India and their stay in India, apart from it being absolutely illegal, is fraught with serious security ramifications.”
Rohingyas are also often subjected to hate campaigns and ethnic slurs by right-wing groups in India. They are targeted and often accused of being criminals and occupiers.
In several provinces in the country it uses the issue of alleged illegal immigration as a central electoral issue. During the Jharkhand assembly elections earlier this year this was one of their main agenda. Similar attempts are being made in the upcoming Delhi assembly elections.
“Rather than re victimizing a population that has survived genocide, the Government of India (GOI) should take steps to provide dignified refuge, starting with immediately releasing the most vulnerable Rohingya detainees and ending the arbitrary detention of more Rohingyas,” the report recommends.
No comments:
Post a Comment