India Joins the Global Reaction Against Refugees

Anger at migrants becomes a political issue

By: Nava Thakuria

India has become the latest country to join the global wave of reaction against undocumented migrants, with refugees becoming political pawns as in the United States, the European Union, Latin America, and other regions where governments are swinging against them. As elsewhere across the world, public anger has become a politically charged issue often exploited by right-wing parties and movements who portray migration as a threat to national identity and welfare, attributing societal problems like unemployment and crime to migration although numerous studies show crime is lower among the un documented, and they usually take jobs locals don’t want to do.

Unofficial records suggest that India gives shelter to nearly 20 million people from Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Economic migrants, asylum seekers and others have been an issue for decades, but recent aggressive action by the federal government in New Delhi indicates the ground situation has changed drastically, driven by events outside India’s borders – the ongoing conflict in Myanmar as rebels attempt to drive the junta from power; the revolution that drove Sheikh Hasina from power in Bangladesh; and the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in Kashmir when 26 tourists were massacred by Islamist terrorists, generating massive fury against Pakistan. Although a truce is in place, enormous fury continues against Pakistan.

The Supreme Court of India has joined the controversy with tough rulings against undocumented migrants, ruling on February 4 against the Assam provincial government for delaying the deportation of declared foreign nationals lodged in a local detention center, then on May 8 rejecting a plea to stop the expulsion of Rohingya Muslims, saying the right to reside in the country is exclusive to its citizens. The court on May 19 followed with an observation that India “cannot function as a dharamshala,” (not the longtime Tibetan refugee community Dharamsala but meaning a place of refuge in Hindi), while dismissing a petition by a Sri Lankan Tamil national who wanted to stay in India after serving his sentence.

The court also recently refused to hear a petition on the alleged dumping of 38 Rohingya in the Andaman Sea near the Myanmar coast, terming the petition a ‘very beautifully crafted story’ that alleged that New Delhi deported them despite their possessing identity cards from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The refugees were reportedly brought to Sri Vijaya Puram, earlier known as Port Blair, headquarters of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal, in the first week of May and abandoned on a ship with life jackets, with assurances that someone would rescue them. The civil society group People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) condemned the alleged deportation, describing it inhumane and illegal.

Anger among the majority of Indians against undocumented Pakistanis has also engulfed Bangladeshi nationals, who are predominantly Muslim, compelling the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government to set a deadline for all states and union territories to identify suspected migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar as a ‘threat to national security’ to be deported to their home countries. Although India hasn’t signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol and has no global obligation to support refugee rights and protection, Indians have traditionally supported migrants out of the legacy of the Vedic philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,’ a Sanskrit phrase literally meaning the whole human society as one single family.

The newfound Rohingya influx has prompted New Delhi and other provinces to act against illegal entrants or those staying after visa expiry. Some 40,000 Rohingya reportedly are staying in Telangana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, and other localities. Originally from Rakhine/Arakan State in western Myanmar, more than 700,000 fled to neighboring Bangladesh following ethnic violence and brutal 2016-2017 military crackdowns. Their return has been complicated by the 2021 military coup which overthrew the democratically elected government in Naypyitaw, with an ongoing armed conflict between the junta and ethnic armed rebel outfits.

The issue came to public notice in India as Assam province government chief Himanta Biswa Sarma on 10 May posted that the government was pushing back Rohingya and other migrants into Bangladesh. The regional BJP leader said the government would deport all undocumented Bangladeshi migrants and declared foreign nationals including Rohingyas under a new push-back policy rather than waiting on legal procedures. The outspoken leader revealed that nearly 100 individuals had been sent back to Bangladesh in the last few weeks, with some illegals reportedly brought from Delhi even pushed towards Bangladesh.

The Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) alleged that India had returned more than 1,000 individuals since May 7 with no official notification. BGB director general Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui claimed that many Bengali-speaking Indian Muslims were also pushed through the borders of West Bengal, Assam, and Tripura. Many Bangladeshi nationals who had been living in India for decades, with their children who got Indian citizenship by birth, allegedly were identified and sent back even after repeated requests from Dhaka were conveyed to New Delhi through diplomatic channels.

Political leaders, security experts, and Bangladeshi citizens expressed serious concern over pushing people through land borders, terming the process illegal. They also questioned the deportation of Myanmar Rohingyas to Bangladesh, and asked New Delhi to deport them to Myanmar. The BGB officials detained at least five UNHCR-recognized Rohingya refugees pushed out by India agencies. Dhaka made it clear that it would accept individuals only after confirmation as Bangladeshi citizens and repatriated through official channels. The Bangladeshis demanded to stop the practice, terming it a threat to their sovereignty.

Some Dhaka-based political analysts believe that New Delhi is attempting to pressure the current interim government led by Muhammad Yunus in the wake of the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government last August 5 after a mass uprising put New Delhi in a difficult situation. Hasina remained loyal to New Delhi during her 16-year rule. She was given shelter in India after her fall. But after nine months of her shelter somewhere in Delhi locality, the federal government has not clarified if the ousted premier was given formal asylum (thanks to her unpopularity among a large section of the Indian population).

An adviser in the Yunus-led administration has stated that Dhaka has officially protested the pushbacks through land borders and asked for a pre-verification of citizenship for each and every individual before deporting them. India’s foreign ministry recently sent a list of 2,365 suspected Bangladeshi nationals illegally staying in the country to Dhaka for verification. After due confirmation about their nationality, they will be deported, said a ministry spokesperson on 22 May last.

Hitesh Devsarma, a Guwahati-based retired bureaucrat who looked after the updating process of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam told Asia Sentinel that illegal Bangladeshi nationals and other migrants in India can be identified with simple procedures enlisted in the NRC Assam exercise. Devsarma revealed that updating procedures identified over 1.9 million undocumented individuals in Assam, but the draft register is yet to be endorsed by the concerned authority. He, however, alleged that the first coordinator used software to include hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants in the list for his personal ‘financial benefits.’Devsarma has lodged a police complaint against his predecessor, Hajela. He also insisted on re-verification of the Assam register, which may produce more names in the list of foreigners.