 | The examples and perspective in this article may not include all significant viewpoints .(May 2022) |
Around 40,000 Rohingya refugees live in slums and detention camps across India, including Jammu, Hyderabad, Nuh, and Delhi, the majority of whom are undocumented. [1] 5,000 Rohingyas sought refuge in Jammu after the 2017 military crackdown against Rohingya Muslims.
Following a military crackdown of the Rohingyas' homeland in 2017, approximately 5,000 Rohingyas sought refuge in Jammu. In 2021, authorities in Jammu detained more than 160 refugees, with the purpose of deporting them to Myanmar. By July 2023, 271 Rohingyas — including 74 women and 70 children — were reported to be detained at Hiranagar Jail in Kathua, Jammu, which is used as a "holding centre" for the refugees. [2] Families of these refugees have raised concerns about the perilous conditions in Myanmar, particularly following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état. [1]
After the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, anti-Rohingya sentiment grew in India, with its leaders urging the removal of Rohingyas from the country. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in India issues identity cards to registered refugees intended to protect them from arbitrary arrests and deportations. [3] In India, however, the UNHCR identity cards do not offer protection from detention. They only serve to provide access to services. At best, they protect from punitive action. [4]
The Rohingyas have protested against their detention in Jammu by going on hunger strikes and demonstrations. In July 2023, a clash occurred between the detainees — on a hunger strike since April — and the police, with the latter resolving to using tear gas to control what they called an unruly mob. A few days after the incident, a five-month old baby died after failing to receive treatment after inhaling the gas. [5]
Leaders of the BJP have initiated campaigns calling for the expulsion of all Rohingya. [6]
The Rohingya people are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar. Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an estimated 1.4 million Rohingya lived in Myanmar. Described by journalists and news outlets as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, the Rohingya are denied citizenship under the 1982 Myanmar nationality law. There are also restrictions on their freedom of movement, access to state education and civil service jobs. The legal conditions faced by the Rohingya in Myanmar have been compared to apartheid by some academics, analysts and political figures, including Nobel laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu, a South African anti-apartheid activist. The most recent mass displacement of Rohingya in 2017 led the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes against humanity, and the International Court of Justice to investigate genocide.
Since its independence in 1947, India has accepted various groups of refugees from neighbouring countries, including partition refugees from former British Indian territories that now constitute Pakistan and Bangladesh, Tibetan refugees that arrived in 1959, Chakma refugees from present day Bangladesh in early 1960s, other Bangladeshi refugees in 1965 and 1971, Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from the 1980s and most recently Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. In 1992, India was seen to be hosting 400,000 refugees from eight countries. According to records with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, as on January 1,2021, there were 58,843 Sri Lankan refugees staying in 108 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu and 54 in Odisha and 72,312 Tibetan refugees have been living in India.
There is a history of persecution of Muslims in Myanmar that continues to the present day. Myanmar is a Buddhist majority country, with significant Christian and Muslim minorities. While Muslims served in the government of Prime Minister U Nu (1948–63), the situation changed with the 1962 Burmese coup d'état. While a few continued to serve, most Christians and Muslims were excluded from positions in the government and army. In 1982, the government introduced regulations that denied citizenship to anyone who could not prove Burmese ancestry from before 1823. This disenfranchised many Muslims in Myanmar, even though they had lived in Myanmar for several generations.
India–Myanmar relations, also knows as Indian–Burmese relations or Indian–Myanmar relations, are the bilateral relations between the Republic of India and the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. These relations encompass the political, economic and socio-cultural relations that exist between the two neighboring Asian countries. Political relations have improved considerably since 1993, overcoming tensions related to drug trafficking, the suppression of democracy and the rule of the military junta in Myanmar. Political leaders from both countries meet regularly on a bilateral basis and within the ASEAN Plus Six community. Economic relations are considerable with India representing Myanmar's 4th largest export market and the country's 5th largest import partner.
Immigration to Pakistan is the legal entry and settlement of foreign nationals in Pakistan. Immigration policy is overseen by the Interior Minister of Pakistan through the Directorate General Passports. Most immigrants are not eligible for citizenship or permanent residency, unless they are married to a Pakistani citizen or a Commonwealth citizen who has invested a minimum of PKR 5 million in the local economy.
The Nationality law of Myanmar currently recognises three categories of citizens, namely citizen, associate citizen and naturalised citizen, according to the 1982 Citizenship Law. Citizens, as defined by the 1947 Constitution, are persons who belong to an "indigenous race", have a grandparent from an "indigenous race", are children of citizens, or lived in British Burma prior to 1942.
The Rohingya conflict is an ongoing conflict in the northern part of Myanmar's Rakhine State, characterised by sectarian violence between the Rohingya Muslim and Rakhine Buddhist communities, a military crackdown on Rohingya civilians by Myanmar's security forces, and militant attacks by Rohingya insurgents in Buthidaung, Maungdaw, and Rathedaung Townships, which border Bangladesh.
Thailand has become one of the destinations of choice for North Korean defectors aiming to either resettle in third countries, or pass in transit to South Korea. Although the Royal Thai Government does not recognize North Korean escapees as refugees, but rather as illegal economic migrants, the Thai government allows North Koreans illegally entering the country to resettle in South Korea. This is possible because South Korea’s domestic law recognizes that North Koreans are also citizens of South Korea. The Thai government also cites the "conveniently blurred geographical distinctions" between the two Koreas in facilitating the transfer and resettlement process.
In 2015, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people were forcibly displaced from their villages and IDP camps in Rakhine State, Myanmar, due to sectarian violence. Nearly one million fled to neighbouring Bangladesh and some travelled to Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand by rickety boats via the waters of the Strait of Malacca, Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.
An illegal immigrant in India is a foreigner who has entered India either without valid documents or who initially had a valid document, but has overstayed beyond the permitted time, as per the general provisions of the Citizenship Act as amended in 2003. Such persons are not eligible for citizenship by registration or naturalisation. They are also liable to be imprisoned for 2–8 years and fined.
The Rohingya genocide is a series of ongoing persecutions and killings of the Muslim Rohingya people by the military of Myanmar. The genocide has consisted of two phases to date: the first was a military crackdown that occurred from October 2016 to January 2017, and the second has been occurring since August 2017. The crisis forced over a million Rohingya to flee to other countries. Most fled to Bangladesh, resulting in the creation of the world's largest refugee camp, while others escaped to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of South and Southeast Asia, where they continue to face persecution. Many other countries consider these events ethnic cleansing.
Violent clashes have been ongoing in the northern part of Myanmar's Rakhine State since October 2016. Insurgent attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) have led to sectarian violence perpetrated by Myanmar's military and the local Buddhist population against predominantly Muslim Rohingya civilians. The conflict has sparked international outcry and was described as an ethnic cleansing by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In August 2017, the situation worsened and hundreds of thousands of refugees fled Myanmar into Bangladesh, with an estimated 500,000 refugees having arrived by 27 September 2017. In January 2019, Arakan Army insurgents raided border police posts in Buthidaung Township, joining the conflict and beginning their military campaign in northern Rakhine State against the Burmese military.
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh mostly refer to Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals from Myanmar who are living in Bangladesh. The Rohingya people have experienced ethnic and religious persecution in Myanmar for decades. Hundreds of thousands have fled to other countries in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Philippines. The majority have escaped to Bangladesh, where there are two official, registered refugee camps. Recently violence in Myanmar has escalated, so the number of refugees in Bangladesh has increased rapidly. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), more than 723,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since 25 August 2017.
Kutupalong refugee camp is the world's largest refugee camp. It is located in Ukhia, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, and is inhabited mostly by Rohingya refugees who fled from ethnic and religious persecution in neighboring Myanmar. It is one of two government-run refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, the other being the Nayapara refugee camp.
Immigration detention of refugee and asylum seeking children in Thailand violates the rights of children under international law. The undocumented migrant children are detained for indefinite and prolonged periods without proper access to legal support. Thailand is key transit route, host and final destination for refugees seeking asylum in southeast Asia and Australia. During the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session in May 2016, various human rights issues including detention of refugee and asylum seeking children were reported. Currently, there are no effective alternatives to immigration detention and all sectors of population including children are subject to detention.
As Indonesia did not sign the convention on the status of refugees and lacks any domestic legislations providing refugees rights, refugees in Indonesia do not have the right to employment, permanent residency or citizenship.
Myanmar–Saudi Arabia relations refer to the bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and Myanmar. Myanmar has an embassy in Riyadh while Saudi Arabia has an embassy in Yangon.
On 22 March 2021, a fire that had started during the late afternoon in the Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, destroyed a large portion of the camp, killed over a dozen people, and left nearly a thousand injured or missing. Thought to have begun when gas cylinders used for cooking exploded, 100 firemen fought the blaze, which burned for around eight hours until midnight.
Mohammad Salimullah v. Union of India, is a petition challenging the deportation of Rohingya Muslims who had taken refuge in India to escape persecution in Myanmar. The court however, in an interim order rejected any relief and allowed their deportation subject to proper procedure being followed.
Tirana Hassan is an Australian lawyer, social worker, and human rights activist. She is the executive director of Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization based in New York City.