Fear Grips Rohingya Refugees In Delhi As India Starts Sending Them Back To Myanmar
The Indian government has decided to send the Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar. The decision has left thousands of asylum seekers in a difficult situation. The incident has raised concern and suspicion among the refugees living in India. The fear of deportation is forcing many refugees to flee their camps during the day time.
The Indian government has decided to send the Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar. However, the decision has left thousands of asylum seekers in a difficult situation as they still fear for their lives.
"Where do we go now?" bemoans Mohammad Tahir, a man in late forties, though his wizened appearance makes him look a lot older. Living in a shabby shanty in South Delhi's Kalindi Kunj camp, Tahir's query perhaps reflects the collective concern of all the Rohingya refugees living in India.
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On October 3, the Indian government deported seven Rohingya refugees to Myanmar for entering the country without proper 'documentation'. The incident has raised concern and suspicion among the refugees living in India.
"We are being thrown into a death trap. Bangladesh, India or Myanmar, no country has space for us" says Tahir, with a discernible irateness donning his face. Tahir has seen his relatives being raped in front of his eyes by the Burmese army, before he 'miraculously' saved his life by crossing two international borders. "Do you think we would not love to go back to our homes? Do you think I enjoy collecting scrap here to feed my family? We will go the very day they stop killing us there (Myanmar)."
Indian government though has toughened the stand against the Rohingya refugees with Home ministry asking states to 'identify' any individual who has entered the country illegally. With general elections only a year away and many state elections slated next month, the issue, not astonishingly is also making it to election rallies. "All illegal migrants are like termites eating into our nation's security. We will make sure no one of them stays in this country, if we are elected again" said BJP president, Amit Shah, in a recent election rally in Madhya Pradesh.
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The fear of deportation is forcing many refugees to flee their camps during the day time. In Kalandi Kunj, southeast Delhi, the refugees allege that the police is frequenting the camps and making them fill 'certain' forms, which they fear is being done to deport them.
Narrating the tales of fear, Najnin Begum, who lives in a small dingy one room house with her sister and brother in law in the camp laments her fate, "We are bare handed and have lost everything. What makes native people fear us?"
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Najnin lost her three children and husband in the violence, ¡°Kill us here, rather than sending us back,¡± she says.
About half of the refugees in India including Najnin Begum have United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cards, however, the government doesn't consider it as a legal permit to stay in the country.
With election times ahead the humanitarian tragedy of Rohingiya refugees issue is expected to be draped with political connotations, with Tahir and Najnin set to become numbers on 'certain' forms and devoid of any corporeal existence.