Rohingya refugees 'threat to India'

A few days back matter related to Rohingya Muslims was a big issue. The Rohingya crisis, for the entire 2017 and 2018, had captured the global limelight and dominated international coverage It is also Termed as ‘crime against humanity,’ the issue stained Myanmar’s relations with the world. Intellectuals from every corner started schooling the Myanmar government on morality and humanity at that time.

Who are Rohingyas?

The Rohingyas are counted among the world’s most persecuted communities. The Rohingyas are Burma’s Muslim minority who reside in the northern parts of the Rakhine region a geographically isolated area in western Burma, bordering Bangladesh.

They are ethnically, linguistically, and religiously different from Myanmar’s dominant Buddhist community. In August 2017, a deadly crackdown by Myanmar's army on Rohingya Muslims sent hundreds of thousands fleeing across the border into Bangladesh. They have fled from Myanmar to India to escape widespread and systematic violence and discrimination in Myanmar. India shares its border with Bangladesh and expectations are that a large number of Rohingya Muslims will cross the border. This proves to be hazardous. As per figures, we see that 40,000 Rohingya refugees have already entered the country while analysts believe that the actual number is much more than what has been interpreted in the figures.

ROLE OF SMUGGLERS: As most Rohingya do not have identification documents and thus could not use official means of transportation to come to India. To minimise the risks of irregular cross-border migration, they generally travel to India in groups – of up to 10 people or larger clusters of up to 25 individuals –that include known and trusted people. Most of the respondents had travelled to India either with family or community members, and some hired smugglers to arrange the journey and navigate the dangers in route. The role of smugglers to assist the journeys of the Rohingya from Bangladesh to India has been frequently reported in the news. It seems to be impossible for Rohingya to travel to India without a smuggler, as it is too difficult to navigate if one has not travelled these routes before.

ROHINGYA’S LIVING CONDITIONS IN INDIA: In India, the Rohingya reside in four main locations: Hyderabad, Jammu, Nuh, and Delhi. They live in destitute conditions in terms of their quality of life. They have low incomes and are usually working as manual labourers. Most Rohingya children are not enrolled in formal education and access to health services is difficult. The Rohingya reported that they had no problems with the local population, but their sense of security is threatened by the possibility of being detained or deported by police and security services.

Is Rohingya a threat to India?

We can say that Illegal migrants pose a threat to national security. Foreign nationals who enter the country without valid travel documents or whose travel documents expire while staying in India are treated as illegal migrants. These migrants are commonly found indulging in illegal activities.

What if Rohingya's get shelter in India? Will this be a threat to our nation?

Rohingya's tends to pose problems in India for a variety of reasons:

1. There are millions of them and India doesn’t have the resources to manage this huge mass of people.

2. Rohingyas have their insurgents and separatists dispersed among the refugees. The insurgents are known for their violence and if some of those get mixed with the general population it will be a nightmare for India.

3. These refugees often settle in fragile regions like J&K, Assam and the rest of the northeast. We already have enough trouble in those regions. It will further pose new challenges and add new troubles.

4. India needs Myanmar for stability in the northeast. Myanmar has been quite helpful in fighting insurgency in Nagaland and other areas. The Rohingya challenge to India’s diplomacy

Government threat to Rohingya

The Rohingya Muslims who have fled to India to escape widespread and systematic violence and discrimination in Myanmar also face a threat from a new source' India’s government'.The Indian authorities have ordered so as to deport the Rohingya Muslims back to their state(MYANMAR). They do not officially recognise them as refugees . “we don’t want India to become a refugee capital” is one of the sayings of an official.

THE CITIZENSHIP BILL ,2019 : This bill was introduced in the Lok sabha in 2019, it was basically the amendment of THE CITIZENSHIP ACT,1955. It mainly aims to provide citizenship to illegal migrants, who are Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian extraction. However, it was found that it doesn’t have a provision for Muslims who also face prosecution in Pakistan. The bill also reduces the requirement of 11 years of continuous stay in the country to 6 years to obtain citizenship by naturalisation.

 WHY ARE PEOPLE PROTESTING THE BILL? As the bill contradicts the Assam Accord of 1985, which states that illegal migrants heading in from Bangladesh after March 1971, would be deported. ANOTHER REASON OF OPPOSING seems to be that the determination of citizenship on the basis of religion is unacceptable. SECULARISM tends to be a part of the basic structure of the Indian constitution. The bill is violative of Article 14, guarantees equality before the law and prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion.

The migration of the Rohingya to and from India is ongoing. On one hand, the threat of deportation from India and increasing harassment by police authorities and intelligence agencies may discourage Rohingya from coming to India. On the other hand, the conditions in Myanmar and plans in Bangladesh to begin ‘repatriating’ the Rohingya serve as ongoing push factors.

Giving shelters to the refugees tends to be a noble cause but serving them for the long and allowing them citizenship tends to have bad consequences. The dire need is that there seems a lot of violence against these Rohingya in Myanmar nowadays, therefore, the Indian government should not sudden deport them back. Also, the need is that the government of Myanmar should try to resolve this issue at their end as no other nation contributes more than it.