Embrace the Rohingya: 

Embrace the Rohingya: 

Context

•  Centre needs to re-think its deportation policy as Rohingyas face a grave threat in Myanmar
• Governments decision against all immigrants including 14,000 Rohingya is sought to be justified on the grounds that
• They are “susceptible” to recruitment by “terror” groups
• They “not only infringe on the rights of Indian citizens but also pose grave security challenges”.       

On legal grounds

• The purported deportation of the Rohingya from India is almost legally untenable as the government is bound by customary international law to respect the principle of non-refoulement.
• No government, as per this law, can forcibly push back asylum-seekers to the country they have fled to escape violence, as it might endanger their very survival despite not being a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol.
• The courts in India have traditionally upheld the rights of refugees facing deportation or forced eviction in different contexts by taking recourse to what is called the “canon of construction” or a “shadow of refugee law”.
• The Right to Life under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution has been so interpreted by the SC that it can be extended to anyone living in India irrespective of her nationality.
• The apex court is scheduled to hear a petition on the Rohingya issue on September 18.
• The flight of nearly 3,00,000 Rohingya to neighboring Bangladesh is a testimony to the wretchedness of their condition
• Reports concluded after a 12-month long investigation in the Rakhine State that since October 9, 2016, “the Rohingya are facing a terrifying new phase in the genocide:
• Mass killings,
• Rapes,
• Village clearings
• And the razing of whole communities, committed with impunity by the Myanmar military and security forces”.