Rohingya Refugees: Petition seeks SC intervention to release and rescue more than 150 members ‘in custody’ in Jammu

An application was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking immediate intervention to allegedly release and rescue more than 150 Rohingya refugees in Jammu.

The application was filed by Mohammed Salimullah, a member of the Rohingya community, represented by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Cheryl D’Souza.

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Mr. Salimullah is already a petitioner in the Supreme Court against the deportation of refugees who fled religious persecution and violence in his native Myanmar.

He said that his application was based on reports in Hindu And the Rohingya members were locked up in a sub-jail in Jammu.

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“It follows the statements of Union Minister Jitendra Singh two months ago that the Rohingya (identified by the government as Muslim refugees) will not be able to gain citizenship. These refugees were illegally detained and jailed in a sub-jail in Jammu, which was turned into a holding center along with IGP (Jammu) Mukesh Singh, stating that they would Back to Myanmar are facing deportation after verification by the embassy. “

It also urged the court to “immediately release the Rohingya refugees and direct the Union Territory Government and the Ministry of Home Affairs to promptly provide refugee identity cards through the FRRO to the Rohingyas in the informant camps.”

It requested the court to direct the Center to stop enforcing any order to deport Rohingya refugees in sub-jails in Jammu.

The application said that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees should be asked to “intervene and determine the security needs of Rohingya refugees not only in Jammu but in camps across the country.”

“On March 7, 2021 news reports about the detention of about 150–170 Rohingya refugees began to come up in Jammu. The application said that after biometric verification of Rohingya refugees by the Jammu and Kashmir administration, there have been disturbing reports of Rohingya families, some people did not return to the camps by verification but police detained and imprisoned them.

It quotes from a report Hindu “How terror has gripped the already marginalized refugee community” in Jammu after a campaign of verification and the disappearance of family members.

The application stated that there were 6,523 Rohingya in Jammu in the official document of the office of Deputy Commissioner of Jammu.

In India, no law was passed yet that specifically refers to refugees. Therefore, Rohingya refugees were often clubbed with the class of illegal immigrants deported by the government under the Foreigners Act 1946 and Foreigners Order 1948. This was coupled with discrimination by the government with the Rohingya, they were largely Muslim refugees. Legally, however, a refugee was a special category of immigrant and could not be clubbed with an illegal immigrant. India was bound to follow the principle of non-refinement through customary international law, opposing the application.

The doctrine of non-return – or not sending refugees to a place where they are threatened – is an ideal of customary international law.