Social Issues
In News: The Home ministry overrules a statement by Minister for Urban Development decision that 1,100 Rohingya refugees in Delhi would be shifted to flats meant for the economically weaker sections.
- MHA also said that it had issued orders that the shanty town where the Rohingya were now living in be designated a detention centre, pending the deportation of all hundreds of people living there.
Who are Rohingyas?
- The Rohingyas are the predominantly Muslim ethnic minority group with Bengali dialect.
- An estimated 800,000 Rohingyas lived in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State.
- They were not regarded as one of the country’s 135 official ethnic groups and were denied citizenship under Myanmar’s 1982 Citizenship Law.
India’s position on Rohingya immigrants:
- India considers Rohingya refugees as illegal foreigners.
- MHA has already taken up the matter of their deportation with the concerned country through the ministry of external affairs (MEA).
- India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the status of refugees and the 1967 protocol
- All foreign nationals (including refuge seekers) are governed by the provisions contained in:
- The Foreigners Act, 1946, The Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939, The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920 and The Citizenship Act, 1955.
- Hence, foreign nationals who enter the country without valid travel documents are treated as illegal migrants.
Source: The Hindu
