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. 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). 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 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. 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,” said Rijuju as quoted by the Hindustan Times newspaper. 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. 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. 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.
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.