NEW DELHI, Sept 15:
The Centre will file an affidavit in the Supreme Court on Monday on its plans to deport Rohingya Muslims, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today.
The Supreme Court had asked the Government to file the affidavit on a plea against the deportation of illegal Rohingya Muslim immigrants to Myanmar.
“We will file the affidavit in the Supreme Court on September 18,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
The plea, filed by two Rohingya immigrants, Mohammad Salimullah and Mohammad Shaqir, who are registered as refugees under the United Nations High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR), claimed they have taken refuge in India after escaping from Myanmar due to widespread discrimination, violence and bloodshed against the community there.
They challenged their deportation on several grounds, including violation of international human rights conventions.
The issue came to the fore after the Union Home Ministry had in July said illegal immigrants such as the Rohingyas posed grave security challenges as they might be recruited by terror groups, and asked State Governments to identify and deport them.
It had directed the State Governments to set up a task force at district level to identify and deport illegally- staying foreign nationals.
The Government told Parliament on August 9 that according to available data, more than 14,000 Rohingyas, registered with the UNHCR, were staying in India.
However, some inputs indicate that around 40,000 Rohingyas are staying in India illegally and the Rohingyas are largely located in Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan.
India is pushing Myanmar both bilaterally and multilaterally to take back Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled the Buddhist-majority nation following the ethnic violence, a top aide of Bangladesh Prime Minister quoted External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj as saying.
More than 300,000 Rohingya have poured into Bangladesh since the latest flare-up in violence on August 25, adding to around 300,000 refugees already living in Bangladesh, close to the border with Myanmar.
Swaraj, in a phone call, yesterday spoke to Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina and assured her of India’s full support to Bangladesh’s stance over the Rohingya issue, Hasina’s Deputy Press Secretary Nazrul Islam was quoted as saying by the bdnews24.Com.
“India’s position is the same as Bangladesh’s over the Rohingya issue,” Nazrul quoted Swaraj as telling Hasina.
“She also spoke about India pushing Myanmar both bilaterally and multilaterally so that they take back their refugees. What India is saying is that Myanmar must stop atrocities against Rohingyas,” he added.
Hasina said the Government has designated land for makeshift shelters of the Rohingya people, but if they stayed here for long, it would pose a big problem for Bangladesh.
Hasina also said she would raise the Rohingya issue at the UN General Assembly in New York later this month.
India, yesterday, rushed 53 tonnes of relief materials to Bangladesh and pledged all help to Dhaka in tackling the humanitarian crisis.
India’s High Commissioner Harsh Vardhan Shringla said India will provide 7,000 tonnes of relief materials to Bangladesh. (PTI)
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