Asma Aletar was supposed to get married on May 20. But only her gifts and bridal dress remain in her makeshift house in New Delhi. Asma and her mother were among the 40 Rohingya refugees pushed to the Andaman Sea by Indian authorities after detaining them on May 06.
“They should have taken me instead,” laments her uncle, Mohammad Ismail, who has remained her guardian since she lost her father during childhood. “I once saved her from the genocide, how can they snatch her from me?”
Thomas Andrews, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, has begun an inquiry into the deportation, calling it “unconscionable, unacceptable acts” while urging the Indian government to refrain from inhumane and life-threatening treatment of Rohingya refugees, including their repatriation into perilous conditions in Myanmar.
“I am deeply concerned by what appears to be a blatant disregard for the lives and safety of those who require international protection. Such cruel actions would be an affront to human decency and represent a serious violation of the principle of non-refoulment, a fundamental tenet of international law that prohibits states from returning individuals to a territory where they face threats to their lives or freedom,” Andrews said.
Despite media coverage and a UN expert statement, the Supreme Court of India has declined to pass any interim orders to halt deportations, saying the petition lacked material evidence. Maktoob reported the inhumane expulsion of Rohingyas, after using the documents from the NUG to confirm the story.
The top court, in its oral observation, said that there existed “a serious dispute” on whether Rohingyas were refugees or not. The bench tagged the present petition with other pending cases on Rohingya deportation and posted it for hearing on July 31.
Asma and her mother Anuwara Bagum are being held by the Ba Htoo Army, affiliated with the civilian-led pro-democratic National Unity Government, formed in response to the military coup in February 2021.
Two other elderly people from the camp were part of the 40 people cast away in the Andaman Sea. While Husanara Begum has a daughter and other families in the camp, Abdul Hussain has none.
People in the camp now live in agony, waiting for their turn to be deported. “Take us all together. Don’t pick one and give us misery,” one of them said as they fought back tears.
Ismail, who was the petitioner in the Supreme Court of India, now turns to people to help him save his “daughter” and sister from the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.
Despite this, MHA estimates about 40,000 Rohingyas now live in India, with approximately 18,000 registered with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They live in many settlements on the outskirts of north Indian cities, doing menial work with no access to any welfare schemes of the state.
In recent years, police have detained Rohingyas with a bid to deport them. But, Rohingyas, called the most persecuted community in the world, are stateless people with nowhere to go.
Nearly 700 Rohingya refugees are now facing indefinite detention in India. In 2018, the Supreme Court of India rejected a plea urging authorities to stop deporting Rohingyas. And again in 2021, the apex court judgment paved the way for more deportations.
