15 May final World supplement

Insight
7
Monday, May 15, 2017
DT
India turns on Rohingya refugees seeking
their deportation as Kashmir boils
• Thomson Reuters
Foundation, Jammu
It was around 3am when Abdul
Kader was awoken by his children’s
screams as flames spread through
their corrugated iron and wood
shack and dense smoke filled the air.
The 37-year-old burkha seller
and his family escaped last month’s
blaze unhurt, as did the six other
Muslim Rohingya refugee families
living there, but it has left the community
in India’s northern city of
Jammu fearful and on edge.
“The police said it was an electrical
short circuit, but we think it
wasn’t an accident,” said Kader, sitting
on the floor of a madrasa in a
slum in Jammu’s Narwal area.
“They don’t like us here and want
us to leave. We were driven from
Burma, then Bangladesh and now
they want us to leave India. The situation
is bad for us wherever we go.”
For almost a decade, India has
been a safe haven for thousands
of Rohingya fleeing persecution in
Myanmar. Around 14,000 Rohingya
live here, with half residing in
the Himalayan state of Jammu and
Kashmir (J&K).
But rising tensions with bordering
Pakistan and a spike in separatist
violence in neighbouring Kashmir,
coupled with nationalist anti-Islamic
sentiment globally, are threatening
the Rohingya once again as demands
grow for their eviction.
Right-wing political parties, including
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s party, blame them for crime
in Jammu, straining public resources,
and claim they pose a threat to
security.
As a result, India has started
registering and monitoring the Rohingya,
a move which activists fear
could eventually force them back
to Myanmar where they face atrocities,
including murder, rape and
arson attacks.
“Indian authorities know very
well the abuses the Rohingya community
have been facing in Myanmar,”
said Amnesty International
India’s Raghu Menon. “Deporting
them and abandoning them to their
fates would be unconscionable.”
Most persecuted community
Often described as the most persecuted
community, the minority
Rohingya have for years faced discrimination,
repression and violence
in northwestern Myanmar.
Denied citizenship by the largely
Buddhist government since the
1990s, they face apartheid-like conditions.
Hundreds have died in communal
violence, and thousands have
sought refuge in Thailand, Indonesia,
Malaysia, India and Bangladesh.
Around 75,000 people have fled
to Bangladesh just since October
as the military cracks down on Rohingya
insurgents.
Mass killings and gang rapes by
the army in recent months have
been documented, prompting the
UN to claim this could be seen as
crimes against humanity and ethnic
cleansing.
Some 7,000 Rohingya refugees
live in Jammu, mostly residing in
urban slums, eking out a meager
living selling garbage or doing manual
work for Indians, often underpaid
and exploited.
“They are extremely poor and settle
wherever they find safety,” said
Suvendu Rout from ACCESS, a Delhi
charity providing Rohingya refugees
with literacy and skills training.
“Many are construction workers
and are contributing to building
India’s infrastructure, while others
collect rubbish which helps keep
our cities clean.”
Parasites, criminals, security threat
But a contrasting narrative is being
spun in J&K, a troubled state which is
disputed by bordering Pakistan, and
where a separatist insurgency has
simmered for almost three decades.
Over the last six months, Jammu
has witnessed a string of anti-Rohingya
public protests by political
parties, Hindu groups, student bodies
and the business community.
Billboards demanding refugees
“Quit Jammu” have been put up, local
media have branded them “parasites”,
Rohingya effigies torched
on the streets, and a petition filed
in the High Court seeking their eviction
from J&K.
Arun Gupta, spokesman for
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
which is also part of J&K’s coalition
government, says public hostility
towards them is growing.
“Jammu is a small place, and
with this kind of influx, it is problematic.
They are into a lot of illegal
activities and since they are poor
and idle, they are easily accessible
to anti-national elements seeking to
destablise Jammu,” said Gupta.
“Kashmir is already on boil. We
Children belonging to Rohingya Muslim community read Koran at a madrasa, or a religious school, at a makeshift settlement,
on the outskirts of Jammu on May 6, 2017
REUTERS
do not want this to spread to Jammu.
People here have started to realise
this and believe these refugees
should leave as of yesterday.”
Many advocating for the eviction
even suggest rival Pakistan may be
behind the Rohingya migration
here, with the aim of stoking trouble
but evidence to support these
claims is scarce.
Police in Jammu, for example,
say only 11 cases against Rohingya
refugees have been registered in
the last six years. These include illegal
border crossing, rape and theft.
They also been no cases or evidence
to suggest links to separatist
militancy in Kashmir, connections
with Pakistan, or their involvement in
Islamic radicalisation, the police add.
Political analysts say the Rohingya
are getting caught up in two different,
yet equally nasty undercurrents:
a global wave of xenophobic
sentiment and the local Indian and
Pakistan dispute.
“Pakistan certainly has a history
of meddling in Kashmir, and we can’t
rule out the possibility that it would
Jammu and Kashmir National Panther Party’s Anti-Rohingya and Bangladeshi billboards in Jammu
want to use the Rohingya to serve its
interests in Kashmir,” said Michael
Kugelman, deputy director of the
South Asia Program at the Woodrow
Wilson International Centre.
“But even if there’s something
to these allegations, this doesn’t
justify the draconian measures being
called for against the entire Rohingya
community, most of whom
we can safely assume are perfectly
law-abiding folks simply trying to
make a living.”
Little protection for refugees
The home ministry has responded
positively to the eviction demands
and last month directed all states to
register and identify Rohingya refugees
as a first step.
A home ministry official said after
this identification process they
would decide on the next step.
“Can’t really say at this stage if
it will be deportation. They are Myanmar
nationals who have come to
India from Bangladesh. Diplomatic
consultations are on with both Myanmar
and Bangladesh about this,”
Twitter
the official said.
Those backing the deportation
stress India is under no legal obligation
to provide the Rohingya refuge.
India is not a signatory to the
1951 Refugee Convention, which
spells out refugee rights and state
responsibilities to protect them.
Nor does the country have a domestic
law to protect the almost
210,000 refugees it currently hosts.
They also argue Rohingya are
technically “illegal”, pointing to Article
370 of the constitution which
gives J&K “special status” and prevents
outsiders from permanent
settlement.
Human rights groups disagree,
saying deporting the refugees to
Myanmar violates the internationally
recognised principle of non-refoulement
that forbids forcibly returning
people to a country where
they are at risk.
In the Rohingya slum in Jammu’s
Narwal area, many feel the
intensifying anti-Rohingya rhetoric
is leading to hate crimes such as
assaults or suspicious fires in their
settlements.
The UN Refugee Agency (UN-
HCR) says while India has not informed
them of any change in policy
towards the Rohingya, there are
signs the space in Jammu is shrinking
for them.
“A few Rohingya families have
informed UNHCR they had to leave
Jammu due to fear,” said the UN-
CHR in a statement, adding it was
helping them resettle in other parts
of India.
Madrasa teacher Kafayat Ullah
Arkani, 32, say most have no choice
but to stay in Jammu for the time
being. •