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The Rohingya tug of war

By Amitava
|
Google Oneindia News

Darjeeling, September 25, 2017: While the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) has filed a writ petition to the Supreme Court against the Union Government's notification to the State governments to deport all Rohingyas, the Border Security Force (BSF) guarding the Indo-Bangladesh border, is ready to foil any attempt by the Rohingyas to enter the country.

The Rohingya tug of war

The Rohingyas are an ethnic group, majority belonging to the Muslim faith, who have lived for centuries in Myanmar. Currently, there are about 1.1 million Rohingya who live in the predominantly Buddhist country.

The Rohingya speak the unique Ruaingga dialect but are not considered one of Myanmar's 135 official ethnic groups. They have been denied citizenship in Myanmar since 1982. This has rendered the Rohingya's stateless.

Nearly all of the Rohingyas in Myanmar live in the western coastal state of Rakhine in camps. Time and again there have been allegations of Myanmar embarking on ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya's which the country has denied.

Following an attack on the police posts and an army base in Myanmar on August 25 that left 12 officers dead, the Myanmar military has imposed a crackdown on the Rohingya population which they have dubbed a clearance operation against an insurgent terrorist group.

Due to ongoing violence and persecution, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled to neighbouring countries either by land or boat.

The Indian Government recently submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court recently, fearing an influx of Rohingyas into West Bengal and then spreading across the country. The Centre feels that it will pose a serious threat to the security of the country. The affidavit claims that some of the Rohingyas have links with Pakistan based terror outfits as per intelligence inputs.

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The affidavit traced probable routes that the Rohingya's could use to enter the country as Benepole-Haridaspur (South Bengal) Hilli (North Bengal) Sonamara (Tripura) with destinations being Kolkata and Guwahati.

Kiren Rijiju, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, stated in Parliament recently that the Union government has directed the State authorities to identify and deport all illegal immigrants, including Rohingyas. A notification to this effect has been sent to the State Governments.

Reports state that a staggering 4 lakh Rohingyas have fled from Mayanmar to Bangladesh over the past three weeks alone. Out of the 4 lakh, at least 2 lakh 40,000 are children.

The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) has filed a writ petition to the Supreme Court against the Centre's notification to the State governments to deport the Rohingyas.

Ananya Chakraborti, Chairperson, WBCPCR stated that there are 24 Rohingya children in shelter homes in West Bengal including the Liluah shelter in the Howrah district.

"Keeping with the regulations they had been produced in front of the Child Welfare Committees (CWC) under the Juvenile Justice Act. They cannot be deported without CWC's consent as per law. Moreover, they have no homes in Myanmar, so where will they be sent?" questioned Chakroborty.

The West Bengal government had earlier planned to hand over UN refugee cards to the 24. However this did not see the light of day with the Centre's directive the State Government's to deport the Rohingyas.

Meanwhile the BSF guarding the 2217 km border that West Bengal shares with Bangladesh have beefed up security to thwart any attempt of a Rohingya influx.

There are intelligence inputs that with Bangladesh having reached a saturation point the Rohingyas could try to cross over to India, West Bengal being the safest bet.

The border is semi-porous with an active network of middlemen and touts and middlemen helping infiltrators to cross over. They even provide the immigrants with fake identification documents.

The problem is not new. The BSF has been checking attempts of Rohingya cross over in the West Bengal-Bangladesh border areas since 2013. With similarity in language and appearance, the Rohingyas try to pass off as Bangladeshis so as not to be arrested for illegally entering the country. This poses as a major challenge for the BSF.

The BSF is relying on intelligence gathering and local sources to ward off future attempts.

Recently there has been a series of coordination meetings of BSF top brass in Delhi followed by Kolkata.

Though in the past after being identified as Rohingyas they used to be handed over to the State police but not there is a change of strategy.

Reports state that PSR Anajaneyulu, IG, BSF (South Bengal) has stated that there are clear instructions to deal with the Rohingyas firmly. "We will identify and push them back" he has stated.

Coordination meetings have been held with different agencies and vulnerable areas have been earmarked. In North Bengal, the BSF have stepped up vigil in Hili, the transit town in South Dinajpur district.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has expressed concern about India's plans to deport the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. UN principles of non-refoulement are applicable in this case claim the UN. These principles state that no nation shall expel or return a refugee in any manner to territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

Minister Rijiju had said that according to available data, more than 14,000 Rohingyas, registered with the UNHCR, are presently staying in India.

"However, inputs indicate that around 40,000 Rohingyas are staying in India illegally and they are mainly located in Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan," Rijjiju had stated.

Backing India's decision to push back the Rohingya's, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh claimed that Rohingya's are not refugees but illegal immigrants in India.

The Minister further claimed that India would not violate any international law by deporting Rohingyas as it was not a signatory to the UN Refugees Convention 1951. The minister said Rohingyas had come to India without following proper procedures of applying for asylum.

"We are providing all humanitarian assistance to Bangladesh in handling Rohingya crisis. Why is all this hue and cry when Myanmar is ready to take the Rohingyas back?" questioned Singh.

The Rohingya crisis hit another high with the Myanmar Army claiming to have stumbled across a mass grave in which 20 Hindu women, 8 Hindu men and 6 Hindu boys were laid out in rows outside the Ye Baw Kya village in the Rakhine state of Myanmar believed to be the handwork of the Rohingya militant outfit The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).

Thousands of Hindus have fled villages alleging that they were being persecuted by militants whose August 25 raids plunged Rakhine into communal violence along with ARSA's attacks on the Myanmar police and military outposts thereby triggering the ongoing crisis.

A post in the Myanmar Army Chief's website claimed "Security members found and dug up 28 dead bodies of Hindus who were cruelly and violently killed by ARSA extremist Bengali terrorists in Rakhine State."

Political commentators feel that this development would definitely evoke strong reactions from the saffron camp thereby providing more muscle to the Indian Government to go ahead with their plans of deporting the Rohingya's.

OneIndia News

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