According to Indian police, 74 Rohingya refugees have been arrested for living “illegally” in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The police stated that the members of the mainly Muslim Rohingya community were detained in six towns and cities in the state and 10 of the refugees were juveniles.
Those arrested included 55 men, 14 women and five children who were living in six districts of Uttar Pradesh “after crossing the border illegally,” the police disclosed.
The Rohingya Human Rights Initiative, a group which campaigns for members of Myanmar’s Muslim minority living in India, stated that the detained people had been living in the area for about 10 years after fleeing persecution in Myanmar.
A large number of Rohingya have fled Myanmar to countries including Bangladesh, which borders India, after Myanmar’s military killed tens of thousands of people belonging to the minority community, raped women and burned dozens of their villages.
Rohingya Human Rights Initiative Director, Sabber Kyaw Min said that many of these refugees had been doing manual labour such as rubbish collection. “They have been only demanding refuge,” he added.
“We want to request the government of India: please save us temporarily; we accept the rule of law in India, we accept peace.”
Sabber Kyaw Min
Meanwhile, the United Nations said that the military campaign against the Rohingya was carried out with “genocidal intent” and some of the military generals are facing a genocide trial at the International Court of Justice.
New Delhi has not signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which stipulates refugee rights and states’ responsibilities to protect them, nor does it have its own laws protecting refugees.
Approximately 18,000 Rohingya refugees lived in India as of early last year, according to Rohingya Human Rights Initiative Co-founder, Ali Johar, with ongoing cases in the Supreme Court against their deportation.
Rohingya Refugees Deserving Of Basic Freedom And Dignity Given To Everyone Else
Rohingya activists in India condemned the arrest as an arbitrary crackdown on people fleeing violence.
They have campaigned against the arrests, urging the government to uphold commitments to human rights and democratic credentials.
“We need to protect the dignity of those detained. Rohingya are human beings, survivors of a genocide and deserving of basic freedom and dignity given to everyone else,” Sabber Kyaw Min averred.
“Those detained have sought asylum in India, not committed any crime. International laws, previous judicial judgements, and India’s constitution are obligated to protect them. Detainees include pregnant women, children and disabled persons who are suffering violence.”
Sabber Kyaw Min
Also, Priyali Sur, founder of the Azadi Project, which supports minority groups, divulged that Rohingya were often detained without notice after being called to police stations under the pretext of signing paperwork.
“Nobody tells them why they are being detained. They’re not given access to any lawyers; they don’t even know that they can get legal recourse. [Their detention] is indefinite,” she said.
Even those who want to leave India, and had the option of resettlement in other countries where they had relatives, were being denied exit visas, she added.
A Rohingya refugee detained at a centre in India’s north-eastern Assam state, who for safety reasons, spoke on the condition of anonymity, disclosed that he was sentenced to a year’s detention for entering India without documentation but has been held for two years beyond his sentence and is not being allowed to leave. He said that about 100 other Rohingya have similarly been held there for years.
“They’re treating us like we’ve committed some big crimes against humanity. I prefer to be free – I can’t stay here another second,” he said. “At least if I die in my country I would prefer it,” he added.
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