New Delhi, India — Mohammed Alam, 43, is looking for plastic bags to pack his things at the Nuh refugee camp in northern India’s Haryana. He and his family of five appear mortified ever since the Indian authorities allegedly forced at least 40 Rohingya refugees off a naval vessel into the sea near Myanmar on May 8.

Alam is among the millions of Rohingyas — a stateless, Muslim community — who have fled religious persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar amid waves of violence continuing for decades.

On August 25, 2017, the Rohingyas faced a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, which has been labelled as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” by the United Nations. 

Ever since the exodus of Rohingyas from Myanmar to countries in its immediate neighbourhood and other parts of the world, the refugees have been struggling for self-preservation in their countries of asylum. 

Bangladesh and India received a sizable population of Rohingya refugees as both countries share a border with Myanmar.

But recently, India drew flak internationally when reports of 40 Rohingyas who were allegedly blindfolded and flown to the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and then transferred to an Indian naval ship, made headlines. 

After the boat crossed the Andaman Sea, the refugees were reportedly given life jackets, asked to jump into the sea, and forced to swim their way to an island in the Myanmar territory. The refugees are reported to have survived the swim, but their whereabouts and condition are unknown.

The refugees, including men, women and even children, were allegedly picked up randomly. Families have said that all those deported had identity cards issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 

The Indian government has neither confirmed nor denied the allegations. On May 16, a writ petition questioning the deportation was heard in India's Supreme Court, where the government prosecutor did not turn up for the hearing and the court said there was no evidence indicating that the government had left the Rohingya refugees stranded in international waters.

Unwanted, uncertain

In March 2021, Mohammed Arib thought he would die when the authorities of India-administered Jammu and Kashmir, in the country’s north, jailed his 80-year-old father in Jammu’s Hiranagar sub-jail.

(India and Pakistan control parts of Kashmir, and both claim the entire territory.)

Arib's father and at least 250 others were taken into custody when the local administration in Jammu undertook a verification drive. "We all have UNHCR cards, my father has one, too, but the police took him away," Arib said at a camp in Jammu.

Arib and countless other Rohingya refugees are under a constant threat of deportation. Recently, the Indian authorities reportedly transferred approximately 100 Rohingya refugees from a detention centre in eastern India’s Assam state and moved them to an area along India’s border with Bangladesh.

“I came here (India) in 2011, fleeing harassment and violence (in Myanmar). Today, I feel that our life is so uncertain and we are in such a situation that there is absolutely no way out. Our UNHCR cards are of no use. I started my life in India from scratch but now I fear the future,” Arib said. 

Asked about his situation and that of thousands of other UNHCR-sponsored Rohingya refugees in India, Arib said the community is grateful to India for providing asylum, but ruled that the current central government’s actions have made the community feel unwanted and hated in the country.

India’s federal government has been headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2014.

A large section of the Indian mainstream media and the citizenry have turned a blind eye to the Rohingya refugees’ plight resulting from the federal administration’s attitude towards them, but civil society organisations and international institutions are holding the Modi government accountable. 

Amnesty International told TRT World that it was shocked by reports indicating that the Rohingya refugees had been forced to jump into the sea. “This is an unthinkable act of cruelty and a grave violation of international law. These Rohingya refugees are men, women, and children seeking safety. Their lives are not disposable,” Aakar Patel, Chair, Amnesty International India, said.

Referring to the fact that India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, Patel said the country is still bound by the “principle of non-refoulement” under customary international law. The principle prohibits sending someone back to a place where they face a risk of torture, persecution, or death. Given its customary status, the principle must be respected irrespective of treaties signed by a country. 

“Additionally, non-refoulement is also a binding obligation under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which India is a party,” Patel said.

Cycle of rightlessness

One of the 40 Rohingyas allegedly cast into the Andaman Sea is Mohammad Sajjad, whose family and relatives, living as refugees in different parts of India, are in deep shock. For them, it is unbelievable that India would treat them less than humans.

One of Sajjad’s relatives, Mohammad Samiullah, has been constantly praying for all the refugees who were blindfolded and taken to the Andaman Sea with Sajjad. “People have no idea how risky it is to send us to a country we fled from. Our simple reason was the fear of death, and the Indian authorities are literally throwing us into the lion’s den,” Samiullah told TRT World.

His relatives shared how, upon swimming to the island in Myanmar, Sajjad and many others were met with the People’s Defence Force (PDF), an armed rebel group opposed to the Myanmar military.

“They were received by the PDF. Given the situation Rohingyas have been put in, they have to work for the PDF one way or the other. Because if they try to return home, the junta will slaughter them,” said Samiullah.

Back in India, as Rohingyas sit bundled in unsafe, shabby shanties, bearing the brunt of statelessness, they are forced to accept what they are served. Many Rohingyas, who have been living in India for decades on Long Term Visas (LTV), are gasping under a mountain of misery in the world’s most populous country.

Since India’s statute book does not have a dedicated law for refugees, Rohingyas are subjected to all Indian laws, like Indians, though they are not entitled to any of the safeguards and privileges enjoyed by Indian citizens. 

The decision on whether to treat a person as a refugee or not is based on the merits and circumstances of the case.

The absence of legal protections and the trajectory of India’s policy and practice on refugees have given rise to a series of challenges faced by Rohingyas in the country. These include threats of indefinite detention and deportation and limited access to education, livelihood opportunities, and healthcare.

Caught in legal limbo

India is not only a country of asylum to Rohingya refugees alone. Over the years, Afghan, Sudanese, Somalian, Tibetan and Sri Lankan Tamil refugees have come to call India their home. Today, UNHCR figures state that more than 213,000 refugees and asylum seekers live in India. 

Many refugees remain unregistered because the UNHCR office in India is in the national capital, Delhi. Another reason is the reluctance of the refugees to get registered because of the threat of deportation and detention.

While India harbours several refugee communities, government policies towards them, especially the Rohingyas, have hardened in recent years. Since Modi was sworn in as prime minister for the first time in May 2014, his Hindu-supremacist politics and policies have fuelled anti-Muslim and anti-refugee sentiments. 

This manifested when Parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019, which mandates citizenship to minorities fleeing persecution in neighbouring countries, and excludes Muslims. Hindu right-wing extremists often label Rohingyas as “terrorists” and political leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah, who is from the BJP, referred to Rohingya refugees as “vermin”, “termites”, and “infiltrators”.

In 2017, India stopped renewing LTVs for Rohingya refugees. Since then,  the community has been increasingly facing threats of deportation and being labelled as a threat to India’s security.

On Rohingyas being treated unfairly, John Quinley, director of Fortify Rights,  a human rights group, feels India is failing Rohingya refugees and the government is exploiting them in its broader anti-refugee and anti-Muslim agenda. 

“A responsible political ethic protects the persecuted — it does not forcibly expel vulnerable communities. The Indian government must abandon its cruel and inhumane policies toward Rohingya refugees,” Quinley said. 

Aman Wadud, a human rights lawyer who defends marginalised communities in Assam, said that while India has always been a home to persecuted refugees, the recent act of ousting refugees defied logic. 

“Rohingyas faced genocide and it is apparent that they will not be safe in Myanmar. There is absolutely no logic in sending them back in such a cruel manner. Article 21 of the Indian Constitution protects citizens as well as non-citizens. Rohingyas should have been protected under Article 21,” Wadud said.

Currently, Wadud is representing two Muslim brothers who were declared foreigners in 2017 and were detained by the Assam police on May 25, where they remain in custody. A court hearing is scheduled for later this month.  A court hearing is scheduled for June 16.