India to deport Rohingyas to Myanmar

India has said that Rohingya refugees living in Jammu and Kashmir states will be sent back to Myanmar.

“The Rohingyas have no right to live in Jammu and Kashmir, and therefore will be sent back at an appropriate moment,” Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir was quoted in a press conference in Jammu city yesterday, our New Delhi correspondent reports.

“We have asked the state government to collect all details of Rohingyas living in Jammu, their families, what business they do, how much threat they are to law and order problem, what kind of activities they are involved in, etc,” he said.

At a meeting held earlier, the minister asked senior civil and police officials to identify Rohingya families living in Jammu.

“I  have asked them to identify such people and gather complete information about them, including what kind of work they do and if they indulge in any anti-social or anti-national activity,’’ he said.

Kirren Rijju, another minister of state for Home, recently told parliament that as per available data, more than 14,000 Rohingyas are registered with the UN are staying in India. However, some inputs indicate that around 40,000 Rohingyas are staying illegally in India.

The Rohingyas are largely located in India’s Jammu and Hyderabad cities and Haryana, Uttar Pradesh states as also in Delhi and its adjacent areas and Rajasthan state.

“Detection and deportation of illegal foreigners is a continuous process,” Rijijur had said adding the Indian government “is vested with powers to detect and deport any illegal foreign national under section 32-C of the Foreigner’s Act, 1946.”

The spokesman of India’s External Affairs Ministry Raveesh Kumar recently said Rijiju’s statement in parliament “has been misrepresented in different sections of the media and suggested that Rohingyas who have taken shelter in India are not being targeted.