NEW DELHI (Reuters) - All of an estimated 40,000 Rohingya Muslims living in India are illegal immigrants, even those registered with the U.N. refugee agency, and the government aims to deport them, a senior government official told Reuters.

FILE PHOTO: People belonging to Rohingya Muslim community sit outside their makeshift houses on the outskirts of Jammu, May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta/File photo

Junior interior minister Kiren Rijiju told parliament last week the central government had directed state authorities to identify and deport illegal immigrants including Rohingya, who face persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has issued identity cards to about 16,500 Rohingya in India that it says help them “prevent harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention and deportation”.

But Rijiju, a high-profile minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, said in an interview on the weekend that the UNHCR registration was irrelevant.

“They are doing it, we can’t stop them from registering. But we are not signatory to the accord on refugees,” he said.

“As far as we are concerned they are all illegal immigrants They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is illegal migrant will be deported.”

The UNHCR’s India office said on Monday the principle of non-refoulement – or not sending back refugees to a place where they face danger – was considered part of customary international law and binding on all states whether they have signed the Refugee Convention or not.

The office said it had not received any official word about a plan to deport Rohingya refugees, and had not got any reports deportations were taking place.

The treatment of the roughly one million Rohingya in Myanmar has emerged as its most contentious human rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled from Myanmar, with many taking refuge in Bangladesh, and some then crossing a porous border into Hindu-majority India.

Many have also headed to Southeast Asia, often on rickety boats run by people-smuggling gangs.

‘PROCEDURE’

Rohingya are generally vilified in India and over the past few months, there has been a string of anti-Rohingya protests.

Rijiju declined to comment on the deportation process, even as some human rights activists question the practicality of rounding up and expelling thousands of people scattered across the country.

“There’s a procedure, there is a rule of law,” Rijiju said.

“We can’t throw them out just like that. We can’t dump them in the Bay of Bengal.”

India said on Friday it was in talks with Bangladesh and Myanmar about the deportation plan.

But deportation is likely to be difficult, given Myanmar’s position that all Rohingya need to be scrutinized before they can be allowed back in as citizens.

Slideshow (4 Images)

Myanmar officials were not immediately available for comment.

A senior government official in Bangladesh, which has complained of being burdened by the heavy flow of refugees, has said India was helping it solve the crisis.

More than 75,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Oct. 9 after an insurgent group attacked Myanmar border police posts, prompting a security crackdown in which troops have been accused of murder and rape of Rohingya civilians.</s>HRW South Asia chief criticises the government plan to send back an estimated 40,000 Rohingya Muslims back to Myanmar.

India's government is looking to deport an estimated 40,000 Rohingya Muslims back to Myanmar, including those registered with the UN refugee agency, a senior official has said.

Deputy Interior Minister Kiren Rijiju told Reuters news agency over the weekend that the Rohingya living in India were illegal immigrants and must be deported.

"As far as we are concerned they are all illegal immigrants," Rijiju, a high-profile minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government, said. " They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is illegal migrant will be deported."

Their registration with the UN refugee agency was irrelevant, he said.

READ MORE: Jammu: Right-wing groups try to evict Rohingya refugees

"We can't stop them from registering. But we are not signatory to the accord on refugees," he said.

Meenakshi Ganguly, the Human Rights Watch's South Asia director, slammed the plan, noting India as a member of the UN Human Rights Council was aware of the risks Rohingya refugees faced if deported.

"India was part of the council that authorised a fact-finding mission after tens of thousands of Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh from Mynamar, following a security operation in which hundreds were killed and raped," she told Al Jazeera.

"So India is aware of the risks of abuse, and India has an international obligation to protect them."

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has issued identity cards to about 16,500 Rohingya in India, which it says helps "prevent harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention and deportation" of refugees.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas have fled their homes since the first bout of violence were sparked in 2012. Since then they live in dispicable conditions in camps that New York Times dubbed 21st century concentration camps.

Thousands of Rohingyas were forced to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh after Myanmar security forces launched a crackdown in the wake of a deadly attack late last year. Many of them crossed the border into India. Others have also fled to southeast Asia, often on rickety boats run by people-smuggling gangs

Rijiju told parliament last week that the central government had directed state authorities to identify and deport illegal immigrants, including Rohingya.

HRW's Ganguly said she was worried that Rijiju's comments could encourage vigilante violence against the Rohingya community in India.

She also questioned the practicality of rounding up and expelling thousands of people scattered across the country.

The UNHCR's India office said it has not received an official word about a plan to deport Rohingyas, and had not received any reports of deportations taking place.

It said the principle of non-refoulement - or not sending back refugees to a place where they face danger - was considered part of customary international law and binding on all states whether they have signed the Refugee Convention or not.

OPINION: Myanmar needs to get serious about peace

India said on Friday it was in talks with Bangladesh and Myanmar about the deportation plan.

Rijiju, however, declined to comment on the deportation process.

"We can't throw them out just like that," he said. "We can't dump them in the Bay of Bengal."

Rohingya are generally vilified in India and over the past few months there has been a string of anti-Rohingya protests.

Right-wing groups in Indian-administered Kashmir have also been running a campaign against the Rohingya refugees.

The rumblings began last year, when India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which runs a coalition government in Indian-administered Kashmir with the regional People's Democratic Party, began to raise the issue.</s>FILE PHOTO: People belonging to Rohingya Muslim community sit outside their makeshift houses on the outskirts of Jammu, May 5, 2017.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is in talks with Bangladesh and Myanmar about its plan to deport around 40,000 Rohingya Muslims it says are living in the country illegally, a government spokesman said on Friday, with state governments told to form task forces for the purpose.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh since the early 1990s, with some of them then crossing over a porous border into Hindu-majority India.

New Delhi says only around 14,000 of the Rohingya living in India are registered with the UN refugee agency, making the rest illegal and liable to be sent back. India is not a signatory to UN conventions on refugees and no national law covers it.

"These things are being discussed at diplomatic level with both Bangladesh and Myanmar," Interior Ministry spokesman K.S. Dhatwalia said.

"More clarity will emerge at an appropriate time."

Junior Interior Minister Kiren Rijiju told parliament on Wednesday the federal government had directed state governments to "constitute task forces at district levels to identify and deport the illegally staying foreign nationals".

Rijiju was in Myanmar recently to attend an event, although it was not clear if he discussed the Rohingya issue.

Officials in Myanmar could not be contacted immediately for comment.

Amnesty International has said deporting and abandoning the Rohingya would be "unconscionable". (reut.rs/2wzseax)

The Indian office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said it was "trying to find the facts" about New Delhi's plans to deport them.

Rohingya are generally reviled in India, where its 1.3 billion people are fighting for resources and job opportunities. Nationalist, anti-Islamic sentiments have also fuelled hatred towards them.

More than 75,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Oct. 9 after an insurgent group called Harakah al-Yaqin attacked Myanmar border police posts, prompting a huge security crackdown in which troops have been accused of murder and rape of Rohingya civilians. (reut.rs/2uue0ub)

A senior government official in Bangladesh, which has complained of being burdened by the heavy flow of refugees, said New Delhi was helping it solve the crisis.

The Rohingya in India live mainly in Jammu, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi in the north, Hyderabad in the south, and Rajasthan in the west.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, drew widespread condemnation in April when it threatened to launch an "identify and kill movement" if the government did not deport Rohingya settlers there.</s>Rohingya children read the Quran at a madrasa at a makeshift settlement, on the outskirts of Jammu, India, on May 6, 2017. Source: Reuters/Mukesh Gupta

THE INDIAN government has declared all of an estimated 40,000 Rohingya Muslims within its borders “illegal” and that it will deport them, regardless of United Nations refugee status.

India’s Home Affairs Minister Kiren Rijuju told parliament last week local authorities have been directed to identify, arrest and deport “illegal immigrants” including some 14,000 Rohingyas who are officially registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

“They are doing it, we can’t stop them from registering. But we are not signatory to the accord on refugees,” said Rijuju as quoted by the Hindustan Times newspaper.

The minister, a prominent member of Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi’s government, cited India’s limited resources to host refugees and claimed Rohingya migrants pose a national security threat.

SEE ALSO: Pope Francis to highlight Rohingya plight in first papal visit to Burma

“As far as we are concerned, they are all illegal immigrants. They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is an illegal migrant will be deported,” he said.

The Rohingya are a persecuted, stateless minority from Buddhist-majority Burma (Myanmar), who have fled in the hundreds of thousands in recent years. Some one million remain in Burma, whose communities are subject to social marginalisation, official discrimination and communal violence.

More than 75,000 people are said to have fled across the Bangladeshi border since clashes with the military broke out in October 2016, leading to a harsh crackdown by Burmese authorities.

India imposes strict immigration laws on all foreign citizens. This announcement of a crackdown against migrants, however, comes amid rising Hindu nationalism and anti-Muslim sentiment which have seen a rise in violent assaults and deaths among its minority Muslim community.

A recent report showed in 2016, there were more than 700 incidents of communal violence which killed 86 and injured more than 2,000 people. Many of these attacks were on members of India’s Muslim community, which represents some 15 percent of the population.

SEE ALSO: No rights for the Rohingya: Bangladesh PM words will fall upon deaf ears

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed concern over the announcement.

“Obviously, we have our concerns about the treatment of refugees. Once refugees are registered, they are not to be returned to countries where they fear persecution,” a spokesman for Guterres told reporters on Monday as quoted by the Times of India.

The UN said India cannot forcibly return people to danger in their country of origin under the non-refoulement principle of customary international law.</s>NEW DELHI
• All of an estimated 40,000 Rohingya Muslims living in India are illegal immigrants, even those registered with the United Nations refugee agency, and the government aims to deport them, a senior government official told Reuters.

Junior Interior Minister Kiren Rijiju told Parliament last week that the central government had directed the state authorities to identify and deport illegal immigrants including Rohingya, who face persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has issued identity cards to about 16,500 Rohingya in India, saying these help them "prevent harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention and deportation".

But Mr Rijiju, a high-profile minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government, said in an interview at the weekend that the UNHCR registration was irrelevant. "They are doing it, we can't stop them from registering. But we are not signatory to the accord on refugees," he said.

"As far as we are concerned, they are all illegal immigrants. They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is (an) illegal migrant will be deported."

The UNHCR's India office said yesterday that the principle of non-refoulement - or not sending back refugees to a place where they face danger - was considered part of customary international law and binding on all states, whether they have signed the Refugee Convention or not.

The office said it had not received any official word about a plan to deport Rohingya refugees, and had not got any reports that deportations were taking place.

The treatment of the roughly one million Rohingya in Myanmar has emerged as its most contentious human rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule.

The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries, with communities marginalised and occasionally subjected to communal violence.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled from Myanmar, with many taking refuge in Bangladesh, and some then crossing a porous border into Hindu-majority India.</s>UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is concerned about India’s plans to deport Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, his spokesperson has said, underlining that refugees should not be returned to countries where they fear persecution once they are registered. Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju had told parliament last week that the central government had directed state authorities to identify and deport illegal immigrants, including Rohingyas, who face persecution in the Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

“Obviously, we have our concerns about the treatment of refugees. Once refugees are registered, they are not to be returned back to countries where they fear persecution,” Guterres’ deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters at United Nations on Monday.

Haq was responding to a question on India’s plans to deport Rohingyas from Myanmar regardless of whether they are registered as UN refugees or not.

Haq said UN principles of non-refoulement applies in this case. According the these principles, no nation shall expel or return a refugee in any manner to territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

When asked which agency would convey this message to India, Haq said the first point of contact will be through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Rijiju had said that according to available data, more than 14,000 Rohingyas, registered with the UNHCR, are presently staying in India.

“However, some inputs indicate that around 40,000 Rohingyas are staying in India illegally and the Rohingyas are largely located in Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan,” he had said.

The Home Ministry had said that infiltration of (Rohingyas) from the Rakhine state of Myanmar into Indian territory, especially in recent years, besides being a burden on the limited resources of the country, also aggravates security challenges posed to India.

For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App</s>UNITED NATIONS, Aug 15 (APP): UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is concerned about India’s move to deport Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar, his spokesperson has said, while stressing that refugees should not be returned to countries where they fear persecution once they are registered.</s>United Nations, Aug 15 (IANS) The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is concerned about India's plans to deport Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, according to his spokesperson Farhan Haq.

Responding to a question on Monday about reports that India was going to send back Rohingyas, Haq said, "Obviously we have our concern about the treatment of refugees. Once refugees are registered they are not to be returned back to the countries where they fear persecution."

Guterres, who was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is deeply attached to the cause of refugees.

Haq said the office of the UNHCR will take up the issue with the Indian government. He reminded India of a UN dictum against deporting refugees.

"You are aware of our principle of non refoulement," he said referring to the doctrine in the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees.

That principle lays down that a refugee cannot be returned to a place where the person's life or freedom would be "threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion."

India has not signed the UN refugees convention.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju told the Lok Sabha last week, "According to UNHCR there are 13,000 Rohingya migrants registered. But we have also got figures from IB (Intelligence Bureau), which shows they have migrated to India in large numbers."

"Steps are being taken to ensure that we do not get uncontrolled influx of migrants in the country, which creates lots of problem related to social, political, cultural.

"And at the same time we want to ensure that the demographic pattern of India is not disturbed," Rijiju added.

He said that a "concentration camp of Rohingyas has come up" in Jammu and Kashmir and later clarified that it was only a detention camp and not a "concentration camp" like those in Nazi Germany.

Subsequently, a Home Ministry official was quoted in media reports as saying that India was in touch with Myanmar and Bangladesh to deport 40,000 Rohingyas illegally in India.

UNHCR office in India has reportedly issued refugee IDs to about 16,500 Rohingyas in India.</s>The Centre on Monday said that all the estimated 40,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees living in India are illegal immigrants and will be deported, Reuters reported. The government said that even those registered with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees would be deported.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said the UNHCR registration was irrelevant. “They [UNHCR] are doing it,” Rijiju said. “We cannot stop them from registering [the Rohingyas]. But we are not a signatory to the accord on refugees,” he said. “As far as we are concerned they are all illegal immigrants. They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is an illegal migrant will be deported.” The UNHCR has issued identity cards to about 16,500 Rohingya in India.

The UNHCR’s India office said on Monday that the principle of not sending back refugees to a place where they face danger - in this case Myanmar - was a part of international law. The UNHCR said the principle was binding on all nations, even those which had not signed the Refugee Convention.

However, the organisation said it had not received any reports that Rohingya were being deported from India.</s>With less than a month to go to the Myanmar visit of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, one of his ministers has threatened to deport all Rohingyas.

But India's junior home minister Khiren Rijiju, a Buddhist politician from Arunachal Pradesh who earned China's ire by shepherding Tibetan leader Dalai Lama around his state this year, did not make it clear whether his government had a time frame in mind and where the Rohingyas would be deported to -- Myanmar where they hail from, or Bangladesh from where they have poossibly slipped into India.

"Either way, that will be the trickiest part of the exercise if the Modi government were to go ahead with it -- Bangladesh's current government does not want any more of the Rohingyas, and Myanmar would be unwilling as well while the Rohingyas would be hardly keen to go back to Myanmar," said Anita Sengupta, research director at Calcutta Research Group, that published a new research report on the Rohingya situation recently.

"They are truly nobody's people in a noman's land, but the diplomatic significance of an Indian bid at deporting Rohingyas cannot be missed. Both Bangladesh and Myanmar, otherwise on friendly terms with India, may be less than willing to take them back," said Jayanta Ray, National Professor and former head of the Calcutta-based Maulana Azad Institute of Asian Studies.

An estimated 40,000 Rohingya Muslims now live in India. Rijju said they were all illegal immigrants, even those 16,500 who are registered with the UN refugee agency.

"The registration with UNHCR does not make them Indian citizens. They are illegal migrants and we have asked all state governments in India to identify and deport all illegal immigrants including Rohingyas," Rijjuju told the Indian parliament last week.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has issued identity cards to about 16,500 Rohingyas in India to help them "prevent harassment, arbitrary arrests, detention and deportation".

However, Mr Rijiju said the UNHCR registration was irrelevant.

"They are doing it; we cannot stop them from registering. However, we are not signatory to the accord on refugees," he said.

"As far as we are concerned the Rohingyas are all illegal immigrants. They have no basis to live here. Anybody who is an illegal migrant will be deported."

The UNHCR's India office said on Monday the principle of non-refoulement - or not sending back refugees to a place where they face danger - was considered part of customary international law and binding on all states whether they had signed the Refugee Convention or not.

The office said it had not received any official word about a plan to deport Rohingya refugees and had not got any reports deportations were taking place.

The treatment meted out to the nearly one million Rohingya in Myanmar has emerged as the most contentious human rights issue in recent years.

The Rohingyas are denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots in the Rakhine (former Arakan) state going back to centuries.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled from Myanmar, with many taking refuge in Bangladesh, and some then crossing a porous border into India.

Many have also headed to Southeast Asia, often on rickety boats run by people-smuggling gangs.

While Bangladesh's Awami League government is opposed to letting in any more of the Rohingyas, arguing it was an over-populated country with no space for them, India has been rocked by anti-Rohingyas protests in many states where their numbers have gone up.

Mr Rijiju declined to comment on the deportation process, even as some human rights activists questioned the practicality of rounding up and expelling thousands of people scattered across the country.

Myanmar officials were not immediately available for comment.

Bangladesh officials, who complain of being burdened by the heavy flow of refugees, said India was helping it solve the crisis.

More than 75,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since October 9 after an insurgent group attacked Myanmar border police posts, prompting a security crackdown in which troops have been accused of murder and rape of Rohingya civilians.
India announces that it is to deport an estimated 40,000 Rohingya refugees including 14,000 of those registered with the U.N. refugee agency. In the months leading up to the announcement, a string of anti-Rohingya protests had been held in the country.