New Delhi (Sputnik) — The United Nations has expressed concerns over India's plan to deport hundreds of Rohingya immigrants living in the country after fleeing Myanmar. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that the world body would take up the issue with the Indian government.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR has reportedly issued refugee IDs to about 16,500 Rohingyas in India. But India says it can deport the illegal immigrants as the country is not a signatory to the UN Refugees Convention.
India is one of the few countries to host Rohingya refugees. But of late, they have become a major security concern with the country's investigation agencies claiming to have found links between Rohingyas and terrorist organizations including Daesh. Last week, India's deputy minister for home affairs, Kiren Rijiju told the Parliament that the central government had issued directives to state authorities to identify and deport illegal immigrants, including Rohingyas.
Rohingyas are mostly settled in pockets of Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Delhi, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Andra Pradesh and Manipur.
Anita Sengupta, director at Calcutta Research Group, recently wrote in one of her papers that deporting Rohingyas would not be easy for the Indian government.
"Bangladesh's current government does not want any more of the Rohingyas, and Myanmar would be unwilling as well, while the Rohingyas would be hardly keen to go back to Myanmar."
The Rohingya is a Muslim community denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants. The community is marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled from Myanmar, with many taking refuge in Bangladesh, and some then crossing a porous border into India.