Context:

• Around 250 Rohingya refugees have been turned away from western Indonesia and sent back to sea.

About Rohingya

• The Rohingya are a majority-Muslim ethnic group who have lived in  the western coastal state of Rakhine in Myanmar.
• However, they are not considered one of the country’s 135 official ethnic groups and they have been denied citizenship in Myanmar since 1982, which has effectively rendered them stateless.

What is the Rohingya refugee crisis?

• In 2017, the Myanmar military launched a brutal crackdown against the Rohingya refugees, leading to widespread killings, rape, and forced displacement. 
• More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to the Bangladesh district of Cox’s Bazar, as well as several other countries in Asia, where the Rohingya have sought sanctuary since the 1970s (According to UNHRC).
• However, Bangladesh is a poor country with limited resources, and as a result, many Rohingyas were turning to other neighboring states in Southeast Asia and South Asia.

Illegal Rohingya refugees in India

• As per Home Ministry data, there are more than 14,000 UNHCR-registered Rohingya refugees in India. However, security agencies estimate the number of Rohingya living illegally in India at 40,000.
• Distribution of Rohingya: There are clusters of Rohingya population in Jammu, Hyderabad, and Delhi-NCR, besides the states of Haryana, UP, and Rajasthan.
• Concerns Over Rohingya Refugees: In the view of the Indian government, illegal migrants “infringe on the rights of Indian citizens” and are “more vulnerable to getting recruited by terrorist organisations.” 
• Legal Basis for Deportation: Section 3(2)(c) of The Foreigners Act, 1946, gives the central government the right to deport a foreign national.
  • In 2011, the Union government circulated a Standard Operating Procedure to all states and Union Territories to deal with foreign nationals who claimed to be refugees.
• Absence of Refugee Laws in India: India is not a signatory to the 1951 United Nations Convention and 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, and it does not currently have a national law on refugees. 
• India’s Rationale for Deporting Rohingya Refugees: India’s claim to send the Rohingyas back to Myanmar rests on the notion that the refugees are of Burmese stock. 
• Myanmar’s Stance on Rohingya: However, the Burmese do not consider the Rohingya refugees as their citizens and consider them to be immigrants who were brought in from Bangladesh during the British colonial rule.
• Bangladesh’s Position: Bangladesh held that they are natives of the Burmese state and should be protected there.

Source: India Today

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