Seven Rohingya Muslims who were lodged in jail since 2012 for illegally entering India were sent to the Myanmar border for deportation. They were held in the Silchar detention centre in Assam before being transported to the Myanmar border at Moreh in Manipur in a bus by the Indian police. This will be the first deportation of Rohingya refugees from India.
Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, additional director general police in India’s northeastern state of Assam said, “This is a routine procedure, we deport all illegal foreigners.” Mahanta said the seven are likely to be handed over to Myanmar border guards at the Moreh border post on Thursday. India has already secured travel permit for them from Myanmar authorities after the identity and address of the refugees were confirmed by Myanmar. They are residents of Rakhine state of the neighbouring country.
To oppose this move by the Government of India, a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court for an urgent hearing and seeking a restraint on the deportation of these illegal immigrants back to Myanmar.
Plea filed in Supreme Court for urgent hearing seeking a restraint on the Government of India from deporting 7 Rohingya Muslims lodged in the Silchar Detention centre in Assam to Myanmar. Bench declined mentioning. https://t.co/j9Te8XD9ZF
— ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2018
The petition filed by Mohammad Salimullah, a Rohingya refugee, states that “the situation in Myanmar is extremely dangerous for the Rohingyas to return and they are likely to be subjected to torture and even killed”.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan submitted the application before a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and K M Joseph seeking an urgent hearing into the matter. The bench accepted the petition but declined to specify a date of hearing.
Multiple reports of forbidden activities committed by Rohingyas across the country have surfaced. In one such instance, Rohingyas in Mewat were alleged to have links with terror networks. In another case, a whopping Rs 30 lakh cash was found in possession of a few Rohingya Muslims in Jammu & the J&K police suspected a terror funding case. In a concerted attempt to effect demographic change, an overwhelming number of Rohingyas travelled in long-distance trains from Northeastern states to southern parts of India, putting the law and order in those states under tremendous pressure.
Earlier this week, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had asked the states to identify Rohingya refugees and collect their biometric data. A report will be prepared from this data, which will be sent to Myanmar through diplomatic channels, in an attempt to resolve the crisis of Rohingya refugees.
In the wake of such illegal activities, it is only befitting of the Indian Police to take stern action against these interlopers & minimize security threats posed by them by rightfully deporting them back to their country.
