Photo credit: Al Jazeera
Fortify Rights a rights activist team, has alleged that the authorities in India have intensified their “illegal immigrant” verification campaign in recent months, arbitrarily arresting, detaining, torturing, and coercively removing members of its Muslim minorities.
Scoop World reports that this includes those with valid documentation or citizenship, as well as Rohingya refugees.
The boody7 said this is a violation of India’s international human rights obligation.
Fortify Rights said it conducted an investigation and found that authorities in BJP have arbitrarily arrested, detained, tortured, and coercively expelled Muslim minorities and Rohingya refugees. These efforts continued in recent months, after deadly attacks in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian authorities alleged they were linked with Pakistan-based militant groups.
Since the directive was issued, Indian authorities have allegedly conducted mass raids. They forcibly returned Rohingya refugees and expelled Indian Muslims, to Myanmar in Bangladesh.
On May 26, authorities arrested scores of Rohingya, including both Muslim and Christian refugees, during raids in New Delhi. It was done under the pretext of a refugee biometric verification exercise. Men, women and children were detained and later forcibly returned to Myanmar where they face an ongoing genocide.
About the same time, in May, Indian authorities forcibly transferred at least 150 Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh. The authorities continue to harass and threaten other Rohingya refugees with forcible returns.
India is not a ;party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. So, it lacks a domestic law protecting refugees. However, it as an obligation to respect the international customary law principle of reinforcement, which prohibits the forced return of Rohingya refugees to situations where they will face persecution and other serious human rights abuses
