Photos: Faces of the Rohingya crisis, as India plans deportations to Myanmar
Updated On Sep 07, 2017 03:07 PM IST
With the Indian government announcing plans to identify and deport its Rohingya refugees, their population here finds itself gripped with fear and in a state of flux as violence in Myanmar escalates, leaving no clear alternative in sight for these people without a state.
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Updated on Sep 07, 2017 03:07 PM IST
The Ministry of Home Affairs estimates 40,000 Rohingya in India. In August, minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju, told parliament that instructions for identifying and deporting illegal nationals including the Rohingya had been made. An attack on August 25, 2017 by the Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar’s forces prompted a ‘clearance operation’ which led to the killing of at least 400 people, arson and violence in Rakhine villages and the exodus of nearly 146,000 to Bangladesh. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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Noor Qasim says his home was burnt while his sister and her husband succumbed to death on August 27, 2017 during the recent upsurge in Myanmar. ‘Sending us back at this time is like rounding us up and killing us,’ he says in despair. ‘If India can welcome refugees from around the world, why deport the Rohingya?’, he asks. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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‘I was born in Burma. We left when I was 2 years old’, says 9- year-old Ubadul who studies at a madarsa in Shastri Park. The UNHCR says Rohingya refugees are spread across six locations in India — Jammu, Nuh in Haryana’s Mewat district, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Chennai. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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Noor Alam who communicated via a translator said that though he was able to flee to Delhi in December 2016, his sisters are still trapped in Myanmar. ‘I left because there was a wave of violence at that time. Whether my relatives in Myanmar will survive or not, I don't know. They are in God's hands now,’ he adds. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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20-year-old Tasmida who studies in Delhi says that the Indian government must ensure that if they are sent back, they receive the same freedoms in Myanmar as Indian citizens enjoy in their country. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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Mohammad Salimullah (R) and Mohammad Shaqir are the two Rohingya refugees who have petitioned the Supreme Court about the proposed deportation. ‘We cannot be deported to a place where we will be killed for sure,’ he says. ‘Since August 25th, Rohingya in the Rakhine state have been massacred and their villages burnt... If the Indian government expects us to return to this situation, then it is against the tenets of humanity’, he added. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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With at least fifty families living in camps across Delhi, the refugees lack basic amenities like potable water and sanitation. Despite the deplorable living conditions in Delhi, most Rohingya refugees prefer living here over the life they had back in Myanmar where they were victims of draconian restrictions, brutality and persecution. (Burhaan Kinu / HT Photo)
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Updated on Sep 07, 2017 03:07 PM IST