E-Paper
In Pics: Exiled Rohingyas living in Delhi
Following large scale communal violence in 2012 against Rohingya muslims in Myanmar, members of the community have been internally displaced and migrated to countries such as India where they live in deplorable conditions. On World Refugee day, The UNHCR released a report that estimates that 65.6 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes due to conflict and war worldwide.
Victims of a genocide in their native land of Myanmar, thousands of Rohingya refugees have fled to India following violence in their country after 2011. In parts of Delhi, they live in ghettoized camps at Kanchan Kunj (near Kalindi Kunj) and at Shaheen Bagh in Okhla.
With some fifty families living in these camps, the refugees lack basic amenities like potable water and sanitation. Despite the deplorable living conditions in Delhi, most Rohingya refugees prefer living here than the life they had back in Myanmar where they are victims of draconian restrictions, brutality and persecution.
The Rohingya ethnic minority are different from the Buddhist majority which does not recognize their rights as citizens and brand them as Bangladeshis even though they have lived there for many generations.
The community has become internally displaced and approximately 14,000 Rohingyas now live in India. According to a new report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a record 65.6 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced from their homes due to conflict or persecution by the end of 2016.
