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The government has informed the Lok Sabha today, on August 10, that some Rohingya migrants have been indulging in illegal activities, without specifying the said reports or the kind of alleged illegal activity.
The Minister of State in the Home Ministry, Nityanand Rai added that all foreign nationals who enter into the country without valid travel documents are treated as illegal migrants. His answer read, “There are reports about some Rohingya migrants indulging in illegal activities.”
He was asked questions by Lok Sabha members Ranjanben Dhananjay Bhatt and Sanjay Kaka Patil about the current situation of the Rohingya Muslims living illegally in various parts of the country along with the number of Rohingyas who are in the country with the United Nations refugee cards.
In its written response, the MHA said that the Central Government has issued instructions to State Governments and Union Territory administrations advising them to sensitise the law enforcement and intelligence agencies for taking appropriate steps for prompt identification of illegal migrants, their restriction to specified locations as per provisions of law.
On the data pertaining to Rohingyas, the answer read, “Since illegal migrants enter into the country without valid travel documents in clandestine and surreptitious manner, accurate data regarding the number of such migrants living in the country is not centrally available.”
The Home Ministry also stated that consolidated instructions to tackle the issue of “overstay and illegal migration of foreign nationals” have been issued on March 30, 2021.
Previously on July 20, 2021, the Home Ministry had provided answers to similar questions stating that, “Illegal migrants (including Rohingyas) pose a threat to national security. There are reports about some Rohingya migrants indulging in illegal activities.”
Rohingyas have been facing discrimination, violence, fear of persecution in their home state of Myanmar, which is a Buddhist majority country, forcing them to flee. Known as one of the world’s most persecuted ethnic groups, almost 40,000 Rohingya refugees are scattered across different Indian states at present, out of which only 16,500 are reportedly registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
According to a report in Voice of America News, Hussain Ahmad, a Rohingya rights activist based on Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, has stated that the Rohingya refugees are being unfairly harassed by the Indian authorities. He said, “Indian police are asking for travel documents from these refugees who are on the run, scared of their lives. How will the stateless Rohingya refugees be able to produce Burmese passports or Indian visas?”
VoA News also quoted Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch saying, “India knows well that the Rohingya are one of the most persecuted communities in the world. Nearly a million are refugees in Bangladesh. A few that have arrived in India need to be protected and not persecuted again. This is a responsibility of the Indian authorities under the refugees convention as well… For political reasons we find that the Rohingya are being targeted largely because the Hindu nationalist government….tends to persecute all Muslims, including Rohingya refugees.”
The recent Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 also does not provide any relief to Rohingya Muslims who have fled from Myanmar over the years, rendering them stateless.
The answers may be read here:
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