ROHINGYA

Context

Where do the Rohingya live in Delhi?

• The Rohingya live in hutments in the densely populated Kalindi Kunj and Madanpur Khadar areas in Delhi which are contiguous with Uttar Pradesh.
• About 1,200 Rohingya have been identified as the first batch arriving in Delhi in 2012.
• They protested outside the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) office in Delhi, and they were provided with refugee cards.

What happened in June last year?

• On June 13, 2021, A fire ravaged one of the Rohingya camps at Kanchan Kunj near Kalindi Kunj metro station in south Delhi. 
• The Rohingya had been notified by the U.P irrigation department to vacate the premises.
• Delhi government made arrangements like pitched tents and providing water and electricity and mobile toilet to displaced Rohingya to an empty plot nearby that belonged to the Zakat Foundation of India, an NGO.
• The Delhi government was incurring an expenditure of 7 lakh rupees per month. It was decided to shift all Rohingya families to EWS flats, which were designated as a detention centre and would be put under constant police watch.
• Residents at the camps said that currently the police do a daily roll call but they are free to move anywhere. A police post has been set up near their camp.

Delhi government involvement 

• The Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), responsible for tracking foreigners and their visas has been requesting space at a new location for the Rohingya from the Delhi government since 2021.
• The FRRO is under the administrative control of the MHA.
• On March 19, 2021, FRRO, Delhi, Wrote a letter to the Delhi government's home department seeking another location to house the Rohingya.
• The Home Department sent a letter to the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).
  Delhi government found a medium to long-term residential solution for Rohingya refugee families.
• The Minutes say that the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi was apprised of the plan.

Process of deportation

• According to the MHA, illegal immigrants are detected, detained and deported under the Provisions of the Passport Act, 1920 or the Foreigners Act, 1946.
• The powers to identify and deport them have also been delegated to State governments and Union Territories.
• Once a "foreigner" has been apprehended by the Police for staying illegally, without any document, he or she is produced before the local court.
• If the accused is found guilty, they can be imprisoned for three months to eight years.
• After completing their sentence, the court orders deportation.
• The foreign inmates are moved to detention centres till the country of origin verifies and accepts them.

Deportation of Rohingya 

• Myanmar issued a certificate of identity to the seven Rohingya who had been picked up in Assam in 2012 and moved to the detention centre from Prison.
• They wrote to the Myanmar Embassy in 2016, expressing their desire to return to their country out of their free will. They were deported to Myanmar in 2018.
• According to the advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW), since October 2018, India has deported 12 Rohingya to Myanmar, Claiming that they left voluntarily.
• The government denied repeated requests by UNHCR to gain access to them to independently assess whether the decision was voluntary said HRW.
• In December 2017, the then Ministry of states for Home Kiren Rijiju informed Parliament that there are around 40, 000 Rohingya in India, of which around 5, 700 are in Jammu and also in Telangana, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan.
• Only 16, 000 are said to be registered with the UN refugee agency.
• The MHA claimed that the exact number is not known as many of them enter the country clandestinely.
• In 2017, the Border Security Force apprehended 87 Rohingya along the Bangladesh border and 76 were pushed back to Bangladesh.

India's stand on refugees

• India is not a signatory to the 1951UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the `1967 Protocol.
• All foreign undocumented nationals are governed as per the provision of the Foreigners Act, 1946,  The Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939, The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and The Citizenship Act, 1955.
• The MHA informed Parliament on April 5 that "Foreign nationals who enter the country without valid travel documents are treated as illegal immigrants."
• In 2016, Mr Rujiju told the Lok Sabha that "There is no national law on refugees at Present.
• Only Standard Operating Procedures are issued by the MHA to deal with foreign nationals in India, who claim to be refugees."