Home Ministry urged to reconsider advisory on Rohingya Muslims

New Delhi Aug 26 (IANS) The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) on Saturday urged the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to consider withdrawal of an advisory with regard to the proposed deportation of Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar.

The Advisory titled Identification of illegal migrants and monitoring thereof was issued on August 8 which emphasises the detection and deportation of illegal migrants from Rakhine State i.e. Rohingyas.

The CHRI in its statement said the government s advisory on Rohingya Muslims "runs contrary" to India s constitutional and international commitments.

The CHRI mentioned that India was a state party to Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which upholds the right to life.

"Under the principle of non-refoulement countries are under obligation not to send back refugees to their country of origin where circumstances of grave human rights violations prevail " CHRI s Director Sanjoy Hazarika said in the statement.

Madhurima Dhanuka Coordinator Prison Reforms Programme CHRI said that while countries had a right to expel foreigners under international law to deport someone requires another country to acknowledge his/her citizenship.

"As Myanmar refuses to acknowledge Rohingya Muslims as citizens it becomes impossible for the Indian government to deport them there making the advisory infructuous " Dhanuka said.

The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority of Myanmar who live in the western state of Rakhine. They do not find mention in that country s official listing of 135 ethnic communities and are thus not recognised as citizens by Myanmar.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) over the past years Myanmar military forces allegedly in connivance with extremist Buddhist groups have launched major crackdowns on Rohingya Muslims driving over 74 000 refugees to seek shelter in Bangladesh by February this year.

--IANS
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