United Nations Must Intervene, India Deporting Rohingya Back To Myanmar [Opinion]
Protect refugees and end forced returns.
By:
Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid
President, Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organizations (MAPIM)
We are deeply concerned about the report that over 200 Rohingya refugees in Jammu in Jammu’s Bathindi area are being deported by the Indian authority back to Myanmar.
The Rohingyas are a Bengali-dialect speaking Muslim minority in Myanmar. Many from the community fled to India after violence in their country.
Thousands of Rohingya refugees have lived there in shanty dwellings for over a decade.
Many of the refugees have been living in India since 2008, when they fled their home country following a brutal outbreak of violence at the hands of the Myanmar military.
In 2012 and then 2017, the numbers of Rohingya in India swelled again after further campaigns of violence.
According to reports in 2021, there are over 6,000 Rohingya refugees living in 39 camps in the Jammu region.
Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – India’s Supreme Court has refused to stop the deportation to Myanmar of about 170 Rohingya refugees detained in the Indian-administered Kashmir region’s Jammu area, with the members of the beleaguered community calling it a “death warrant” issued by the court.
But right-wing groups have been demanding their eviction and deportation, and now India is gearing up to deport them forcibly.
International law prohibits the forced return of refugees to places where their lives or freedom would be threatened.
We are also shocked to know that many families are detained in jail along with their children.
The Indian authority seems to ignore the plight of children being left without support when selected refugees are deported.
The UN has recognised the “ethnic cleansing” faced by the Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar regime.
The UN even described it as a persecuting attempt with “genocidal intent”.
We remind the Jammu and Kashmir authority under the Indian government that it violates the international refugee protection law.
India must not continue to deport the Rohingya refugees without considering the safety of the refugees expelled back to Myanmar.
The Indian government gains nothing by forcibly returning them.
Furthermore, the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol ensure the protection of refugees against refoulement or forcible return to a country where they face persecution.
The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol also provides them and their families with access to civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights similar to other citizens.
Although India is not a party to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, the prohibition of refoulement has become a norm of customary international law that every nation is bound to respect.
We demand the United Nations intervene and stop the detention and deportation and ascertain that the rights of the refugees are protected.
Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid is a humanitarian activist and recipient of the the national-level Maulidur Rasul award.
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